Canadian Defence Minister meets Sushma Swaraj

New Delhi: Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan today met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues.

Sajjan and Swaraj also explored ways to further deepen engagement between the two countries in areas of trade and investment.

Canada is home to over 1.2 million Indian-origin people comprising more than 3 per cent of the country’s population and the issue of welfare of the community understood to have figured in the meeting.

Sajjan, a Sikh, arrived here on Monday on a seven-day India visit, his first after assuming charge as Canada’s Minister of National Defence.

In his meeting with Sajjan yesterday, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had raised the issue of India’s “anguish” over the Ontario legislative assembly passing a motion recently describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide”.

The ties between India and Canada have been on an upswing.

The volume of bilateral trade has seen a steady growth.

The two-way trade in 2010 was Canadian dollar 4.2 billion which had gone up to C$ 6.4 billion in 2014.

Items that India exports to Canada include gems, jewellery and precious stones, pharmaceutical products, readymade garments, textiles, organic chemicals, light engineering goods, iron and steel articles.

India’s imports from Canada include pulses, newsprint, wood pulp, asbestos and potash.

—PTI