India and Canada have opened a formal military channel for the first time, holding the inaugural edition of the India-Canada Defence Dialogue virtually on Tuesday, November 3, India's Ministry of Defence announced in a release issued through PIB Delhi late on Wednesday. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Amit Telang, Joint Secretary (International Cooperation) in India's Ministry of Defence, and Scott Millar, Assistant Deputy Minister (Policy) in Canada's Department of National Defence.

Source: PIB Delhi, Ministry of Defence release, Nov 4

The two sides exchanged views on their respective defence policies and strategic outlooks and explored avenues for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation, the ministry said. Defence industrial cooperation emerged as an important area of engagement, while military-technical cooperation and defence research and development were identified as priority areas for further collaboration.

Source: PIB Delhi, Ministry of Defence release, Nov 4

A new channel built on the Modi-Carney mandate

The dialogue is not a courtesy call. It directly implements the commitment recorded in the Joint Statement issued on March 2, 2026 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in which the two leaders agreed to expand defence and strategic engagement between the two countries, the ministry said. Tuesday's meeting turns that leadership-level commitment into a standing institutional platform between the two defence establishments.

Source: PIB Delhi, Ministry of Defence release, Nov 4

The IANS news agency, reporting the same meeting on Wednesday, said the two sides also explored cooperation in capacity building alongside the military-technical exchanges and defence industrial collaboration, and spoke about regional and global issues. IANS noted that in July the two countries had already agreed to enhance defence cooperation, with discussions then focusing on maritime collaboration, defence capacity-building and training.

Source: IANS, Nov 4

The defence channel is the newest piece of a wider reset that already includes a trade track aimed at a comprehensive economic partnership and a December visit by Prime Minister Modi to Canada. Read: Canada-India CEPA track and Modi's December visit

The reset follows a deep rupture: relations broke down after then prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged in September 2023 that the Indian government was involved in the killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, and in October 2024 each country expelled six of the other's diplomats. Since then the two governments have rebuilt step by step - a joint roadmap in October 2025, a bilateral security dialogue, Foreign Minister Anita Anand's meeting with Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi on October 14, and a Team Canada trade mission of nearly 300 delegates - with both sides targeting a trade agreement by the end of 2026 and trade of $70 billion by 2030, according to Global Affairs Canada readouts reported last month.

What happens next: both sides agreed to remain in contact to take forward the discussions and proposals from the inaugural meeting. The wider calendar is already set - Prime Minister Modi is expected in Canada in December, and both governments have set the end of 2026 as the target for concluding their economic partnership agreement - so the defence dialogue's first proposals will be tested against that December deadline.

Source: SSBCrack, Nov 5