Harper to accompany Modi all three days

• Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, will visit Canada from April 14 to 16, 2015, making stops in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.

• Canada and India have long-standing and positive bilateral relations based on shared values of democracy, pluralism and a mutual interest in expanding trade.
• India is Canada’s largest trading partner in South Asia and continues to be a priority market under Canada’s Global Markets Action Plan.
• With bilateral merchandise trade totalling nearly $6.33 billion in 2014, a market of more than 1.2 billion people, and a predicted economic growth of 6.4 per cent in 2015, India represents exciting opportunities for Canadian businesses.
• Prime Minister Harper first met Prime Minister Modi on the margins of the G‑20 Summit in Australia in November 2014. Prime Minister Harper also visited India in November 2012 and November 2009.
• This is the first bilateral visit to Canada by an Indian Prime Minister since 1973.

“Looking forward to enhancing ties with Canada & interacting with leaders, captains of industry & diaspora in Canada,” Narendra Modi

 In an extraordinary gesture Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be present in all the three cities of the country — Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be touring next week. Though world leaders like Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena had been with Modi in cities other than national capitals, this is the first time the head of a country is expected to travel the course of a visiting leader’s itinerary.

Narendra Modi, will go to Komagata Maru Museum and Monument located in Vancouver and is also likely to pay obeisance at the Ross Street gurdwara there.

Prime Minister Modi’s bilateral visit to Canada – his first since taking office – will provide an opportunity for the leaders to reaffirm the close relationship between Canada and India and to discuss ways to further broaden its scope. Increased cooperation in the fields of science and technology, innovation, education, security, counter-terrorism and energy are expected to feature prominently in discussions. “Canada and India enjoy a close friendship based on shared values of democracy, pluralism and a mutual interest in expanding trade. India’s growing economy presents enormous opportunities for Canada and I look forward to meeting with Prime Minister Modi to further strengthen bilateral relations and expand our trade and investment ties with a view to benefitting citizens of both countries,”  said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a press release.

The two countries are also looking at a roadmap to increase the trade, which is little over $5 billionRecently, the Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution asking the Union Government to tell the Canadian Government to seek apology for inhuman treatment to Indians who travelled on a Komagata Maru ship to Vancouver but were not allowed to enter the port. Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008 while speaking to crowd of 8000 people in Surrey, B.C. had apologised for Komagata Maru and Canada has also released a stamp. Modi’s visit to Komagata Maru Museum and Monument assumes even greater significance.