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CIC Victoria: Canada-India relations: As Canada seeks to diversify its foreign trade, are our ties finally on the mend?
Mark your calendars! A CIC Victoria member-only event (other branch members please contact us directly at: cic.victoria.sec@gmail.com). Registration details will be sent to everyone in mid-August.
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When: Tuesday, 2 September
Where: The Sticky Wicket Pub, Wicket Hall, the Strathcona Hotel, 919 Douglas Street
For: This is a CIC member only event
Time: 5 – 7:00 pm (doors open at 5 pm)
Our Speaker: Dr. Reeta Tremblay
India figures prominently in Canada’s Indo-Pacific strategy and earlier this year Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a guest at the G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta. But why does India matter and why is the world actively embracing it?
Certainly, among the world’s ten largest economies, India is currently the fastest growing and, due to its demographic dividend, will likely achieve significantly faster growth than others over the long term, including China and the US.
In our favour, India’s poor relations with China has led it to align more easily with the West and enter into plurilateral agreements such as the QUAD – a strategic partnership between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia aimed at promoting regional security and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
On the other hand, since 2014, India’s rise as a global power has been accompanied by an era of domestic ethnic majoritarianism and nationalism that has stifled dissent and curbed the rights of minorities. Uniformity has now become the defining feature of the Indian state, replacing its former carefully constructed federal asymmetry and multicultural democracy.
Given all this, how is Canada’s relationship with India likely to develop moving forward? Especially as Ottawa seeks to diversify its economy?
Our speaker:
To explore all this we are delighted that Reeta Tremblay will speak at our next Politics in the Pub. Reeta is Professor Emerita of Comparative Politics and former Provost and Vice-President Academic at the University of Victoria. She is also Past President of the Canadian Political Science Association and Canadian Asian Studies.
Her major areas of research are secessionist movements (Kashmir) in South Asia, the politics of subaltern resistance and accommodation in post-colonial societies, democracy and governance, and comparative federalism. She has also authored or co-authored several books, articles, and reviews and her work has been widely reviewed and cited. In particular, she is considered as the leading North American expert on Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations in that region. Two of her recent books are: Religion and Politics in Jammu and Kashmir (2020) and Modi’s Foreign Policy (2017).
Saskatoon Club 
