Gujral's three-day visit to Toronto and Ottawa is essentially a follow-up to the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to India in January, when he led a high-powered delegation of businessmen here, which resulted in about $3 billion of approved investment into India.
Interestingly, Chretien had met Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda in New Delhi when Gowda was only the Karnataka Chief Minister. Some analysts say this was because Bangalore attracts huge foreign investments. Others call the coincidence pure good fortune.
No formal agreement or treaty is likely to be signed during Gujral's trip. A statement of intent on bilateral investment promotion and protection was put in place during Chretien's visit, but sources said a treaty was far from ready.
Nevertheless, Canada is going to push for the opening of a consulate in Punjab, which is likely to be sanctioned during Gujral's visit. More than half of the 500,000 immigrants of Indian origin in Canada are Sikhs.
Gujral will begin his visit with a power breakfast in Toronto, hosted by the Bank of Nova Scotia president, which will be attended by a large number of prominent Canadian CEOs.
An agreement for an increase in the number of flights and seats by Air India and Air Canada to both countries is being negotiated. Another agreement on the exchange of convicted offenders is also being discussed, as a follow-up to the extradition treaty signed by the two countries in 1987. The Indo-Canadian relationship has been largely quiescent in recent decades. The Canadians provided fuel for India's nascent nuclear programme in the 1960s and early 1970s, but the supply was abruptly cut off after India exploded a peaceful nuclear device in 1974.
Through the Cold War, the two countries were in opposite camps and the bilateral relationship was reduced to a peripheral one. But even after the Narasimha Rao government launched its liberalisation programme in late 1991, it took nearly five years for Ottawa to send a political signal to New Delhi showing keenness to invest in the country. Chretien finally broke the ice early this year when he led Team Canada, a group of high-powered CEOs, to this country. Living in the shadow of the US, the Canadians have been striving since the Cold War to forge an
