Canada eyes doubling trade relations with India to $60bn by end of decade
A day after signing a joint statement on energy cooperation with India, Canada today said it intends to double bilateral trade relations with India to $60 billion by the end of the decade. Addressing a session at India Energy Week (IEW) on Wednesday, His Excellency Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Canada, said, “Our Prime Minister is a businessperson. He sets clear KPIs for key performance indicators. Today, bilateral trade between Canada and India is only $30 billion. He expects that to double by the end of the decade. Knowing him, he'll raise the bar.”
Rich in natural resources, Canada is a clean and conventional energy powerhouse and has almost every critical mineral. The country also has some of the world's largest reserves of conventional oil and natural gas and is one of the world's largest uranium suppliers.
Terming India as one of the most vibrant economies of the world, His Excellency said the world is “envious of India’s growth”. It also signifies that India’s energy consumption growth will increase, in sync. India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, His Excellency Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that one-third of the total increase in energy demand over the coming years will come from India.
H.E. Hodgson said, “We produce about 6% of the world's oil today. India gets less than 1% of its oil from Canada. If we just sort of paired up to a normal percentage, it will make us both stronger, more resilient, and more secure. That's a huge opportunity for both of us.
Apart from hydrocarbon products that Canada has in abundance, he said many Indian companies, both public and private, are interested in accessing Canada’s critical minerals, LNG, LPG, and other products.
“We've had a number of conversations with the ministry people here. I'll be in Delhi tomorrow, meeting with a number of other ministers in the Indian government who cover some of the other areas that I'm responsible for. Nuclear, critical minerals, and forestry. We've also been meeting with all the state-sponsored entities and the private-sector energy companies here. It's a plethora of companies that have all expressed interest in critical minerals, LNG, LPG, uranium, and any conventional ones,” the minister said.
Talking about uranium, he said that for India to achieve a 100 GW nuclear power target, it would require a lot of uranium.
“Canada has the highest quality, purest concentration of uranium of any country in the world. We have historically supplied uranium to India. We supply uranium for peaceful purposes to countries all over the world. There's a tremendous opportunity for us to increase our supplies. That gives India an additional source of uranium, of low-cost, high-quality uranium. That gives us another buyer. That makes you more secure, more resilient. That makes us more secure, more resilient. That's a win-win,” he said.
On India’s possibility to diversify its source for critical minerals, the minister said, “Canada provides an opportunity for India to diversify away from some of the constraints in the critical mineral supply chain today. That makes India stronger. That makes India more resilient. And it's an opportunity for us to find new customers.”
