Toronto: After their third bilateral meeting in nine months, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has praised his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for his work ethic and policies geared towards financial inclusion.
“He’s unique, I would say,” Carney said, during an event at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday.
“Twenty-five years and he’s not taken a day off, 25 years straight as either Chief Minister in Gujarat or Prime Minister,” he said. Carney travelled to Australia for the second leg of his trip, which began in India. That was his first bilateral visit to India and he met Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday before departing for Australia.
He pointed out that Modi is “out campaigning” every weekend. “Like you,” he said pointing to Canada’s Minister of Finance Francois-Philippe Champagne, who was in the audience, and joked that while Modi’s rallies attracted crowds of 250,000, Champagne’s events drew 25.
At the personal level, he said the impression he gathered was that Modi was “very focused on delivery” to rural households, or as Canadians would describe them, the person on the street. “A huge motivation for the financial reforms transformation, the payments system, UPI and other things, was to get money directly to individuals without leakage, in real time,” he added.
He said that focus brought 100s of millions of people into the formal economy.
Carney felt that while Modi was “up there at this global level”, he was also “a leader who was bringing it back down” to the grassroots.
Referring to his “thesis”, delivered at Davos last month, where he spoke about the “rupture” in the rules-based global order and the need for values-based coalitions, Carney said the attitude of any Indian leader, including Modi could be, “What took you so long to figure that out? We’ve been non-aligned since regaining Independence in 1947.”
Earlier, during a press conference in Sydney, Carney said the relationship with India had witnessed more engagement over the past year than the “total” over the last two decades.
“This is a reflection of the world we face today and the ambition of both our nations to build and diversify,” he said.
Carney travelled to Caberra, the Australian capital. In a joint statement issued with Australian PM Anthony Albanese, the two sides “welcomed progress under the Australia–Canada–India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership”.
That trilateral partnership was announced on the margins of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November last year. That was also where Carney met Modi, and the announcement of fresh negotiations towards a comprehensive economic partnership agreement or CEPA came about. Carney said the CEPA would be “foundational” as Canada and India are “forging” a new strategic partnership across sectors.
Carney met Modi for the first time on the margins of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025, marking a reset in ties, which has evolved into a renewal since that bilateral.
Carney will proceed to Japan from Australia before returning to Canada.