‘We have got to put more India into Indo-Pacific strategy’: Christopher Cooter

Interview/ Christopher Cooter, high commissioner of Canada to India

Q/ We have seen a remarkable reset in India-Canada relations over the past year. How do you see the way forward?

We are well beyond the reset now. India’s economic requirements happen to match what Canada is able to do and wants to do. If you look at energy, we have had no energy relationship except refining, which is only one small part of what we produce in Canada. We are the fourth-largest producer of oil and the fifth-largest producer of LNG and LPG. We have never sold that to you. Carbon capture is another area where we are one of the world leaders, but there has been almost no relationship. We have a foothold in aerospace and space. In almost every area—AI, aeronautics, space, defence and critical minerals—we have things that India needs or could partner with us on.

We have a new nuclear policy. Eighteen of India’s existing nuclear reactors are based on Canadian reactors. If you [plan to] go from about nine gigawatts to 100 gigawatts, there is no more logical partner than Canada for the fuel, technology, engineering and skills. Our agriculture sector is also strong. We export about $110 billion worth of agricultural products and are already here with companies doing processing, science and seeding technologies.

We had an investment summit about two weeks ago that attracted half a trillion dollars in new investment in infrastructure, critical minerals, energy production and clean energy. We expect an additional $500 billion to be invested in defence by 2035. This creates immense opportunities to work with the Indian private sector and parastatals, not only to sell things but also to work together in joint ventures.

The two prime ministers have met four times in the last year, and our foreign ministers have met 10 times. The trade ministers have also been meeting frequently because they are negotiating the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The next phase is the private sector. We really hope that kicks off with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada in mid-December.

Q/ What strategic role does India now play in Canada’s foreign-policy priorities?

Our prime minister was very careful when he said that we don’t consider you a middle power. He recognises that you are above and beyond that. We see you as a key player and key partner. That is bilateral on one level, but global on another. There is room to work together on UN reform, climate, COP31 (climate initiative), the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim Association. Our Indo-Pacific strategy has been more oriented towards the Western Pacific than towards India up until now. We have got to put more India into the Indo-Pacific strategy. We have got a defence dialogue shortly and security discussions going on.

Q/ With Canada recalibrating immigration, where do you see the future for skilled professionals?

We have scaled back immigration targets for the last couple of years, partly because we did not have enough housing and partly because we were not providing for students properly. We are cleaning that part up.

At the same time, we are doing an enormous scaling-up of our economy. The electricity expansion alone is supposed to require 1,30,000 jobs. I have heard that in mining we would need a million more people, and they have to be trained people. India is an excellent candidate as a partner because we speak English, have similar systems and shared history, and there is already a large population in Canada. One model could be to have a couple of years of training with an institution in India, then go to Canada to finish the training and come back. Some will stay, of course, and some will return, bringing that repository of skills into India as well.

Q/ From critical minerals to energy security needs, which areas of partnership do you see moving fastest?

On critical minerals, it is not just about availability. There are choke points—the price, processing or concentration of processing in China or elsewhere. We are working with the G7 to build resilience and develop not just new mines but processing facilities. In Saskatchewan, starting January, there will be the first rare-earth processing facility in North America. We are also developing graphite, uranium, potash and tungsten. We have 20 per cent of the world’s tungsten, but no mines, so we are starting to develop those mines. We have reduced the time for the federal regulatory process to about a year. We have added new incentives for investment in critical minerals and lower corporate tax rates.

The infrastructure is also being built—ports, rail and connections from east to west. The very first shipping line establishing a trade link between India and Canada’s east coast has started.

On energy, we had a sale from Cameco of $2.6 billion of uranium fuel. We are the second-largest producer of uranium in the world, and India is going to [scale up to] 100 gigawatts. On oil, LNG and LPG, there is also significant room to grow. Our first LNG shipments from the west coast only began last year, and our first-ever direct oil shipment to India was made last year. We expect to quadruple our LPG capacity in the next two or three years. LNG will go from 14 million tonnes last year to about 50 million by 2030 and then 100 million by 2040.

Clean-energy technology is another opportunity. Carbon capture, hydrogen, fuel cells and batteries could involve technology transfers, training or joint ventures. We will be able to produce by 2028 one and a half million EV batteries. We will have a major trade mission here [this month], and clean tech and clean energy will be a major part of that mission.