New Delhi/Toronto, Oct.24 (ANI): Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit India next week to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders.
Harper's November 3-9 visit will be his second to India, and will include trips to Agra, New Delhi, Chandigarh and Bangalore.
"Canada enjoys a strong working and personal relationship with India but we must further strengthen the links between our two countries," Harper said in a statement from Toronto ahead of his visit.
He added: "India is a growing economy with enormous potential, and expanding our trade and investment links with India will create jobs, growth and long-term prosperity here in Canada."
He will also address the World Economic Forum on India, an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders.
Harper will be accompanied by a high-level ministerial team that includes Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources, Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Bal Gosal, Minister of State (Sport), and Tim Uppal, Minister of State (Democratic Reform), besides business and cultural sector representatives.
The longstanding bilateral relations between India and Canada have been built upon a "mutual commitment to democracy", "pluralism", and "people-to-people links".
Being fellow members of the Commonwealth, Canada and India share high commissioners rather than ambassadors. Canada's High Commission to India is located in New Delhi, whereas India's is in Ottawa. Canada maintains consulates in three Indian cities: Mumbai, Chennai, and Chandigarh; and trade offices in an additional four: Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Indian consulates can be found in Vancouver and Toronto.
Canada and India maintain a bilateral dialogue on counter-terrorism, including an annual meeting of the Canada-India Strategic Dialogue, as well as regular meetings of the aforementioned Canada-India Working Group on Counter-Terrorism.
Canada is also negotiating with the Indian government for reviving the defence ties. The Nuclear Co-operation Agreement was signed between Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Prime Minister Harper in June 2010 during a meeting of the G-20 in Toronto, Ontario.
The NCA is yet to be ratified by both countries. Canada has vast reserves of uranium, but also, its Atomic Energy Agency has been in the process of developing technology for thorium-based processors, a mineral which India has vast deposits.
Canada and India also enjoy a prosperous trading relationship. Since 2004, despite the Late-2000s recession, trade has increased by over 70 percent.
In 2009, Canadian exports to India totalled Canadian dollars 2.1 billion, while in the same year Canadian imports from India totalled Canadian dollars 2.0 billion, giving Canada a hundred million dollar trade surplus.
Canada and India are working on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to improve the trade relations between the two countries.
The CEPA is expected to be signed in the year 2013.
India celebrated the year 2012 as year of India in Canada to promote business, cultural and political relations with India. (ANI)
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