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Transport Minister Omar Alghabra introduced that the federal government will enable an infinite variety of flights from designated airways between Canada and India, considerably increasing a deal that beforehand restricted every nation to 35 flights per week.

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“This is great news for the people of Canada and for the businesses of Canada,” Alghabra stated after he introduced the amended deal at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s authorities is betting elevated entry to one of many world’s largest and fastest-growing economies will likely be good for commerce and funding. The settlement provides designated airways entry to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Mumbai, whereas Indian air carriers get entry to Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, and “two additional points to be selected by India,” the federal government stated a statement on Nov. 14.

Air Canada is the one designated provider that may fly to Indian cities however different home carriers can search designation standing, the minister stated.

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“By making the movement of goods and people faster and easier, this expanded agreement will continue to facilitate trade and investment between Canada and India and help our businesses grow and succeed,” Alghabra stated.

Removing the cap on flights represents an “important piece of the puzzle” in Canada’s pursuit of a complete commerce settlement with India, stated Rohinton Medhora, a distinguished fellow on the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a think-tank. “It’s the symbolism that Canada and India take their economic relations seriously,” he stated.

Starting with former prime minister Stephen Harper, Canada has tried a number of occasions to succeed in a commerce cope with India to no success. Canada and India have been attempting to rekindle ties this yr after relations between Trudeau’s authorities and Narendra Modi’s regime hit a tough patch a couple of years in the past over New Delhi’s concern that Ottawa was tender on the separatist motion within the state of Punjab. In March, the 2 international locations “relaunched” negotiations over a trade agreement.

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Geopolitical forces additionally may very well be at work, as democratic international locations corresponding to Canada have begun extra aggressively courting India to counter the rising affect of China and the erratic behaviour of nuclear-armed Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February. Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly stated on the University of Toronto that China is changing into “an increasingly disruptive, global power” and that Canada will deepen hyperlinks with India.

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Alghabra stated Monday’s announcement “has nothing to do with China.”

Ottawa and New Delhi first reached an settlement on air transport companies in 1982, and earlier than Monday’s refreshed deal, it was final expanded in 2011 beneath Canada’s Blue Sky Policy. The coverage, adopted in 2006, set out a framework to information Canada in pursuing bilateral offers that increase the nation’s financial system by expanded worldwide air journey for everybody from vacationers to entrepreneurs.

India’s consul common, Apoorva Srivastava, stated on the Pearson press convention that the expanded settlement is an “important development” within the international locations’ bilateral dealings, underlining that the muse of the Canada-India relationship is the “strong people-to-people” ties.

“We have a large Indian diaspora here. Apart from that, we have 700,000 Indian citizens living and working here in Canada,” Srivastava stated. “Indian students form the largest chunk of international students coming and studying in Canada. We currently have 230,000 and a lot more ready to come to Canada for educational purposes.”

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