Great to see you again, Shereen. Thank you all. What a great room. Thank you very much. It is a privilege, a true privilege, to be here in Mumbai this evening. I’d like to thank everyone in this room for taking the time to share with me and, in particular, the Chief Minister, for being here – and to welcome your delegation here. I’m very much looking forward to the discussion. 

We take so much inspiration from what has happened in Maharashtra over the course of a number of years, but particularly over the course of the last decade. Many lessons about how to build infrastructure, how to build out, how to build clean, how to re-green.

So, I’m going to go through some remarks. I’m going to give a bit of context to how we see the world and what it means for Canada, what it means for Canada and India, but there have obviously been developments today and I would like to make a few comments on those developments.

Canada’s position on the developments in the Middle East remains clear. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East. It has one of the world’s worst human rights records and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.

Canada and our international partners have called consistently up on the Iranian regime to end its nuclear program including at the 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, and with the United Nations’ (UN) reimposition of sanctions this past September.

We’ve sanctioned over 250 Iranian entities, we’ve listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. And despite numerous diplomatic efforts, Iran has neither fully dismantled its nuclear program, halted all enrichment activities, nor ended its support for regional terrorist proxy groups.

Canada stands with the Iranian people in their long and courageous struggle against this oppressive regime and we reaffirm Israel’s right to defend itself. Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security. The Canadian government urges the protection of all civilians in this conflict going forward.

So with that, I’d like to put in context where the world is, as I said before, where our relations are, and where Canada’s going. And let me start by observing again what an honour it is to be here and a pleasure to be at the Taj, a landmark that reflects this city’s illustrious history and its resilience.

My visit is the first bilateral visit by a Canadian Prime Minister in eight years. This visit marks the end of a challenging period and, more importantly, the beginning of a new, more ambitious partnership between two confident and complementary nations.

Now, it does come during a more volatile period in the global economy. A more volatile era is emerging and it’s emerging in a process that we’ve described as a rupture, not a transition. And the fact is that, over the past two decades, there’s been a series of crises in finance, in health, in energy, and in geopolitics that have collectively laid bare the risks of extreme global integration.

More recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. And the multilateral institutions on which countries have relied – the World Trade Organization, the UN, the Conference of the Parties – that architecture of collective problem solving are all under threat.

As a result of this, many countries are concluding that they must develop greater strategic autonomy, and that impulse is understandable. When the rules no longer protect you, you must protect yourself. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options. But building true strategic economy requires diversification and partnership, not isolation. And it creates enormous opportunities for Canada and India to work together – at a minimum, to limit risk – but really to increase prosperity and to build our collective sovereignty.

This room knows that the economic security and the prosperity of our countries depends on what we would call a strategic stack that is much longer than conventional energy, food, and defence – as important as they are. Today, sovereignty requires reliable access to space-based communications and semi-conductors. It requires unhindered access to artificial intelligence (AI), critical minerals, clean energy technologies, and vaccines. It requires digital sovereignty, beginning with a sovereign cloud and extending through the intelligence infrastructure stack.

Canada was amongst the first to understand how the global system was changing and to fundamentally shift our strategic posture as a result. We now know that our old – admittedly, comfortable – assumptions that our geography and our alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security are no longer valid.

And so, we are pursuing a new approach which we call value-based realism – being both principled and pragmatic. Principled in our commitments to fundamental values, respect for human rights, and our responsibility for future generations. But pragmatic in recognising that progress is often incremental, that interests of nations can diverge, and that not every partner will share all of our values.

We’re actively taking on the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world that we wish to be. And we are no longer just relying on the strength of our values, but also on the value of our strength. And that strength, as it does here, starts at home.

Our government has cut taxes on income, capital gains, and business investment. As one example, we put in place what we call a ‘super deduction’, a broad-based 100% tax write-off for everything from manufacturing assets to intelligence infrastructure, research and development (R&D), clean energy, and electric vehicles. And, on top of this, we have instituted investment tax credits across the clean energy value chain – from clean electricity to critical minerals and storage. These measures reduce our marginal effective tax rate for investment to just 13%.

Let me translate that in relative terms. That’s 4.5 percentage points below the United States and it is one half of the G7 average.

We are slashing red tape – admittedly, the red tape for which Canada, unfortunately, had become infamous. All major projects will be approved within two years, in cooperation with the provinces and territories. We’ve removed all federal barriers to interprovincial trade and we’re fast-tracking $1 trillion of investment in energy, AI, critical minerals, new trade corridors, and beyond.

Just last month, we launched our new Defence Industrial Strategy. It’s a bold plan that will catalyse over half a trillion dollars in investment over the course of the next decade. We are doubling government investment in defence-related R&D to develop next-generation capabilities in AI, quantum, robotics, and autonomous systems.

Overall, this strategy builds our sovereignty in the fullest sense. In other words, our ability to act independently in a more dangerous and divided world. And, to repeat, we know that strategic autonomy does not mean isolation. It means being strong enough to be a partner of choice, and India is one of our natural partners.

To put those partnerships in context, we’re rapidly diversifying abroad. We have agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the European Union (EU), including becoming the only non-EU country to join Security Action for Europe (SAFE), their defence procurement arrangement. We’ve signed 20 trade and security deals on four continents in 10 months, including with China, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates. We’re negotiating free-trade agreements with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Thailand, the Philippines, Mercosur, and – of course – India.

And beyond the threats and away from the headlines, we retain the best trade deal with the US. Our average tariff rate is less than 5% and more than 85% of our trade enters the US tariff-free.

In addition, to help solve global problems as the rules-based order is under threat, we’re pursuing variable geometry. In other words, building coalitions for different issues based on common values and interests. On trade, we’re championing efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the European Union – something that would create a trading block of 1.5 billion people.

On critical minerals, we’re forming buyers’ clubs so the world can diversify away from concentrated supply. On AI, we’re cooperating with like-minded democracies to ensure that we will not ultimately be forced to choose between hegemons and hyperscalers. Canada is at the table. Canada is at those tables because we have what the world wants.

We’re an energy superpower. We hold vast reserves of critical minerals. We have the most educated population in the world. Our pension funds are some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated investors, and our government, which is AAA-rated, has immense fiscal capacity to act decisively. And, if you don’t believe that, the Minister of Finance will give you an hour-long tutorial after this.

Fundamentally, we have the values to which many others aspire. We’re a pluralistic society that works and we are a stable, reliable partner in a world that’s anything but. A partner that builds and values relationships for the long-term.

And we’re here this week because Canada and India are natural partners.

That partnership begins with our people. Two million Canadians trace their roots to India, including leaders in business, science, and government. Tens of thousands of people travel between our countries every year to visit families and friends. There are more than 1,000 Canadian companies already doing business here, in India. Four hundred thousand talented Indians study in Canada. That is double the number that study in the United States. It is four times the number that study in the United Kingdom. And, just as Indian students come to study at Canadian universities, Canadian universities come to India.

Today, it was my pleasure to join Universities Canada, representing over 20 of our top institutions, in announcing the signing of 13 new agreements for research, student exchanges, hybrid campuses, and AI centres of excellence.

I salute the presidents of the University of Toronto, McGill University, Dalhousie University, and the University of British Columbia. This is an enormous opportunity for both our countries. It already has created enormous benefit for both our countries, and it’s one that is about to move to the next level.

A few other things on our connections. Two-way investments between our countries, in fixed investment, $100 billion, with two-way trade exceeding $30 billion a year. But the reality is, on the economic side, that level of activity is nowhere near our potential, especially as both our countries embark on ambitious transformations.

We should aim much higher and we are aiming much higher – to be more strategic in our partnership. And that’s why, last year, our government set out to renew our relationship with India. I invited Prime Minister Modi to the 2025 G7 Leaders’ Summit in Canada. And when he came a few weeks later, we agreed to re-engage across security, energy, and technology.

A few months later, at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, Prime Minister Modi and I launched a landmark partnership with Australia on critical minerals and technology, and we’re now negotiating a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the intention to double two-way trade by 2030. Our goal, to be clear, is to sign that agreement by the end of this year.

Our Foreign ministers have met five times in five months. Minister Anand is here this evening. Our Minister of Environment, our Minister of Trade, and our Minister of AI have all led delegations to India. I’m joined by them, the Minister of Finance, the head of our civil service and the premiers of New Brunswick and Saskatchewan, to give a sense of the breadth and depth of this relationship and the scale of the opportunities. Premier Moe and Premier Holt, thank you for your leadership and thank you for coming today.

Our visit is focussed on the core areas where we can work together to create greater sovereignty, greater choice, and greater prosperity for our peoples. And that naturally begins with food and energy, given our places and Canada’s position as a food and energy superpower. I’ll give a few examples. Liquified natural gas – we intend to increase our export capacity to Asia by 50 million tonnes in the coming years. This expansion also extends to nuclear cooperation – from being the most reliable, long-term supplier of uranium to building large-scale and small modular reactors.

We could also be India’s strategic partner in critical minerals and metals for your manufacturing, for your clean tech, and for your nuclear industries. And in another respect, India can help us double our grid with clean power by 2040.

And finally, India’s leadership in AI and the digital economy aligns well with our mission to develop and commercialise those technologies as well as quantum and, as I said earlier, to deepen our defence innovation.

My friends, Canada is clear-eyed about the world as it is, and we are equally determined to forge a new path in it. We are a confident and ambitious nation, and that confidence and that ambition bring us here to India. To lay and build on the foundations; foundations that have been laid by tens of millions of citizens in both our nations. To work together to create a more resilient, a more prosperous, and a more just future for our peoples.

As communities in Canada and India mark Holi in just a few days, our bilateral relationship is also entering a new chapter, embodying the festival’s vibrancy and its values of renewal and opportunity. Thank you for your presence. Thank you for being part of this renewal. I look forward to the discussion and your questions.