Sitharaman In Toronto: India, Canada Most Natural Partners
TORONTO- India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has described India and Canada as the “most natural partners” in the world, saying their relationship has undergone a “remarkable transformation” and that their shared values and people-to-people ties go beyond any trade agreement.
Sitharaman arrived in Toronto on August 25 for a four-day official visit to Canada focused on strengthening bilateral trade, investment linkages and financial cooperation.
Speaking at a reception for the Indian diaspora business community in Toronto, the Finance Minister said, “India-Canada bilateral relations have seen a remarkable transformation in recent times, underpinned by our shared values of democracy and pluralism, and expanding economic engagement, and an unprecedented pace of high-level interactions—which the High Commissioner recalled a minute ago—and the strength of our people-to-people ties.”
Hailing the Indian business community in Canada, she said, “This is a community that sits inside Canadian boardrooms, on the trading floors of Bay Street, inside the risk committees of the pension funds. It is, in the truest sense, a strategic bridge between two vibrant democracies and two innovation-driven economies.”
Sitharaman said the India-Canada partnership is “increasingly moving from capital flows to deeper institutional engagement”.
“Capital markets are only one dimension of a modern financial partnership. Equally important is the underlying financial infrastructure,” she said, highlighting India’s Unified Payments Interface system.
“There are significant opportunities here for collaboration with Canadian banks, fintech companies and regulators—not only in payments, but in shaping the next generation of digital financial infrastructure,” she added.
Sitharaman also said India has “progressively opened” sectors such as insurance, asset management and pensions to greater foreign participation, while Indian capital markets have become “deeper, more liquid and more sophisticated”.
For Canadian institutional investors, she said, this creates opportunities not only to participate in India’s growth but also to “use India as a platform for wider regional and global financial activity”. (IANS)
