High Commission Names December Dates for Modi Canada Visit

India's high commission in Ottawa says Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Canada on 11 and 12 December. Mark Carney has named the same dates.

India's high commission in Ottawa said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Canada on 11 and 12 December 2026. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, speaking with people at a restaurant in Calgary on Thursday, said he had just spoken to Modi. He named the same dates. He said the visit would largely be to Ottawa and Toronto, and added that they would see if it could be broadened. The two leaders had spoken by phone on Tuesday 13 October. Carney's office said they agreed to finish talks on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement as early as they can. That agreement is a trade pact covering goods, services and investment, not a single tariff cut. They linked it to a goal of doubling two-way trade by 2030. They also discussed energy, agriculture, security, and the war in Ukraine. Both sides have now said 11 and 12 December.

Why it matters

India and Canada had a long cold spell after 2023, when relations broke down over the killing of a Sikh separatist in Canada and the arguments that followed. Carney's own visit to India this year was the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2018. A return visit by Modi is the other half of that repair. Trade is the part ordinary people would feel: students, families with relatives in both countries, and firms that want a clearer set of rules. Doubling trade by 2030 is a target, not a contract. The agreement is not signed. There is also a wrinkle. People familiar with the planning have said the fine print of the dates is not locked, and the foreign ministry's spokesperson has said the dates are still under discussion and will be announced at the right time. The high commission has already posted 11 and 12 December. Carney has said them out loud. A posted date and a ministry that still says the dates are under discussion are not the same thing.

Key facts

• The Indian high commission in Ottawa said Modi will be in Canada on 11 and 12 December 2026.

• Mark Carney, in Calgary on Thursday, named those dates and said the stops would be Ottawa and Toronto, perhaps more.

• The leaders spoke on 13 October and pointed to trade, energy, technology, security and people-to-people ties.

• They want a comprehensive economic pact finished early, in aid of doubling two-way trade by 2030.

• Carney's India trip this year was the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2018.

• The foreign ministry has separately said the dates are still being discussed and will be announced later.

What's next

The visit becomes real when both governments publish one programme, with cities and meetings, and stop saying the dates are under discussion. If 11 and 12 December hold, Modi is also expected in the United States afterwards for the G20, and there is talk of Brussels on 16 and 17 December for an India-European Union trade signing. None of that is a substitute for the pact with Canada. Until the agreement has a text, December is a visit, not a deal. Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand was in New Delhi this week, and a Canadian trade mission led by Maninder Sidhu is in India. Those visits are the working part of the relationship while the December dates are still being argued over in public.