NEW DELHI, Oct 14: India and Canada today held a strategic dialogue in which they are understood to have taken stock of their cooperation in the areas of security, defence, counter-terrorism, space and nuclear energy, education food security, among others. The dialogue was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Canadian counterpart John Baird. “Canada and India have many common interests and cooperate on several fronts,” said Mr Baird.
“Potential cooperation between our two countries to combat terrorism and address security issues was a central element of my discussion with Minister Swaraj. We also spoke about our ongoing collaboration on cyber-security and education, among other topics,” he said.
“India, under Prime Minister Modi, has demonstrated great leadership in promoting stability with Pakistan and in the Kashmir region,” added Baird.
“For its part, Canada will continue to offer its support to India to combat any incidents of extremism in the region,” he said.
India is currently the third largest source country of immigrants to Canada, and the population of the Indo-Canadian community was today estimated to be over one million. The fact makes Canada as one of the countries which are high on the foreign policy priorities of India.
Besides discussing terror and other security related matters, the two sides are also understood to have talked in detail over the new economic and developmental initiatives being taken up in India under the new Government and explored the possibility of Canadian participation in it.
This dialogue mechanism was agreed to between India and Canada during the visit of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2012. The first dialogue was held last year in Toronto in September last year. (UNI)
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