Sudha Ramachandran
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, to participate in the G-7 Summit and outreach sessions being held in Alberta, Canada, on June 15-17, and the Indian prime minister’s confirmation of his participation in the event, are seen as marking a shift in their bilateral relationship.
The question of India’s exclusion from the summit had been causing embarrassment to the Modi government, even as it put the Canadian government in a spot. Although it is not a member of the G-7, India has been a regular attendee at its summits. India has participated in 11 G-7 summits so far, with Modi attending five of them.
The upcoming G-7 meeting will be Modi’s sixth. It almost didn’t happen, given the troubled ties between India and Canada.
Invites to other G-7 members and non-members had already gone out, and as late as June 5, there was no official word about Canada inviting India.
This caused major embarrassment to Modi at home. While analysts drew attention to the Canadian “snub,” political rivals mocked him for not being invited and interpreted the non-invitation as evidence of his foreign policy blunders. For Modi, who takes great pride in his global image, this was a major blow.
Meanwhile, in Canada, Canadian-Sikh groups and Liberal Party politicians opposed Carney’s invitation of Modi to the country. Yet Carney was under pressure to invite India to the summit; all the other G-7 members were reportedly keen on India’s participation. Canada itself, especially amid deteriorating relations with the U.S., is looking to deepen economic cooperation with countries like India. Carney said it didn’t make “sense” to exclude India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, which is “at the heart” of global supply chains, from the G-7 summit.
No comments:
Post a Comment