Canada reached a “landmark” deal on energy, technology, and innovation with India while President Donald Trump was busy ordering deadly strikes on Iran.
As the Trump administration’s “major combat operations” against Iran entered their third day Monday, Canada’s Mark Carney and India’s Narendra Modi announced a 10-year strategic energy partnership as well as agreements on technology, critical minerals, space, defense, and education, the BBC reported.
They also agreed to conclude a free trade deal, which has been discussed on and off for the past 15 years, by the end of 2026.
The two countries hope to reach $50 billion in bilateral trade as they both look for ways to lessen the impact of Trump’s trade wars, according to the BBC.
After he leaves India, Carney is scheduled to travel to Australia and then Japan as part of his effort to diversify Canada’s trade after Trump, 79, imposed crushing tariffs on products from dozens of U.S. trade partners, including Canada.
The president is also considering blowing up the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which he signed during his first term in office, to get back at Carney, who has responded forcefully to Trump’s threats to annex Canada and make it the 51st U.S. state.
Earlier this month, Trump raged at Carney for traveling to Beijing to negotiate a trade deal with China, which has spent the last year trying to present itself as a more reliable trading partner than the mercurial Trump.
Canada agreed to lower its tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for China reducing its import taxes on Canadian farm products.
Trump was so upset about the deal that he brought it up during a completely unrelated conversation about the U.K. and China, and posted multiple Truth Socials about how China was “successfully and completely taking over” Canada and would “terminate ALL ice hockey” there.
He also threatened to prevent a new bridge from opening between Ontario and Michigan.
Those outbursts suggest the president will not be happy with Canada’s latest deal with India.
So far, though, he hasn’t weighed in. On Monday morning, the president took a rare break from posting on social media as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference on the Iran strikes, which killed the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Four U.S. soldiers have been killed in retaliatory strikes across the Middle East
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
