“India’s strategic importance and leadership will only increase”: Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy

Ottawa , November 28 (ANI): Canada has in its new Indo-Pacific strategy document highlighted plans to increase cooperation with India, including a commitment to work towards a new trade agreement, underscoring New Delhi’s growing importance in the strategic, economic and demographic spheres in the region.

“India’s growing strategic, economic and demographic importance in the Indo-Pacific makes it a critical partner in Canada’s pursuit of its objectives under this strategy,” says the 26-page document released on Sunday.

It seeks to expand to market access with India by concluding an Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) as a step towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries.

Canada will it says invest in and connect people, including by bolstering Canada’s visa-processing capacity in New Delhi and Chandigarh.

Canada will seek to accelerate cooperation in the fight against climate change, in protecting the environment and in deploying green technologies.

It will also send enhanced Team Canada trade missions in priority sectors of mutual interest, such as renewable energy and clean technology.

The strategy states that Canada and India have a shared tradition of democracy and pluralism, a common commitment to a rules-based international system and multilateralism, mutual interest in expanding multifaceted ties between the two countries.

Encompassing 40 economies, over four billion people and USD 47.19 trillion in economic activity, it is the world’s fastest growing-region and home to six of Canada’s top 13 trading partners.

Meanwhile, the document describes China as “an increasingly disruptive global power,” that have complex and deeply intertwined relationships with its “key regional actors.”

It also rebukes China’s disregard of international rules and norms.