Good evening, readers.

We take a brief pause from the war in the Middle East to discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney’s massive Asia-Pacific trip.

On Monday, the PM inked a deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on what they’re a calling a “new partnership,” a series of multimillion-dollar deals and a commitment to sign a free trade agreement by year’s end as the two look to turn the page on years of frosty bilateral relations marked by allegations of Indian foreign interference.

In a statement to reporters after a one-on-one meeting with Modi at the colonial-era Hyderabad House in Delhi’s diplomatic core, Carney said Canada is going all-in on diversifying trade. The two countries have set a goal to more than double two-way trade to some $70 billion a year by 2030, he said, as Canada continues a push to reduce its dependence on the U.S.

The gushing talk belies worries over Indian foreign interference, which was ratcheted up with revelations this week from the Globe and Mail that India’s consulate in Vancouver is thought to be involved in the killing of a B.C. Sikh leader that led to a massive cooling in relations back in 2023.

But we thought that was all behind us? After all, a government official told reporters before the trip that Ottawa believes Indian foreign interference activity has stopped.

Carney was due to face questions about that assessment Monday but cancelled a planned news conference with reporters travelling with him on this 10-day trip to the Indo-Pacific.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was sent out in his place. Amid outrage from some in the Sikh community that the government would say interference in Canada is over, Anand distanced herself from those comments.

“The words of the senior official are not words that I personally would use,” Anand said.

And yet she defended bolstering relations with a country accused of this activity. “We need to engage, we need to have these diplomatic conversations in order to make progress,” she said.

We should probably have this settled before Modi takes up Carney’s offer to visit Canada, no?

CBC News has more.

Switching gears ever so slightly, Saskatchewan is applauding Carney’s deal with India on uranium.

The $2.6-billion agreement means Saskatoon-based Cameco is to supply just under 22 million pounds of uranium to India over nine years.

Moe says the announcement holds a lot of promise for a bright future together.

“Today marks a great day for this long-standing partnership and holds a lot of promise for a bright future together,” Saskatchewan Premier Moe said in a news release Monday, per the Canadian Press.

Going back to the war in the Middle East, Carney’s thumbs up to the U.S. operation in Iran is being questioned by a Liberal MP.

At an event in Mumbai on Saturday, Carney said Canada would not get involved in the conflict. He was scheduled to have a news conference in New Delhi on Monday morning but abruptly cancelled it.

Anand took questions from reporters instead, and she reiterated Canada’s intention not to get involved. She also confirmed Canada had no advance notification of the attack.

Anand would not say whether Canada sees the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran as a violation of international law.

On Saturday, Victoria MP Will Greaves expressed concerns with Canada’s position in a social media post, which received likes from a handful of fellow Liberal MPs including a former cabinet minister.

“Canada cannot endorse the unilateral and illegal use of military force, the killing of civilians, or the kidnap and assassination of foreign heads of government, while also insisting that our sovereignty, our rights, and our independence must be respected,” he said.

“All states have an obligation to protect civilian life, and no state has the right to wage aggressive war.”

CP has this one.

The Globe is reporting that Ottawa is weighing splitting the lucrative contract to replace our submarine fleet between the Norway-Germany bid and a rival from South Korea.

That could allow the feds to extract benefits from both the TKMS-led offer and the Hanwha bid, though neither is promising to bring auto production to Canada.

Secretary of State for Defence Procurement Stephen Fuhr told iPolitics recently that Canada’s wave of defence investments could help bring much-needed manufacturing jobs back to the country.

In Other Headlines

Internationally

What about four weeks?

Israel and the United States pounded Iran on Monday in a campaign that U.S. President Donald Trump said would likely take several weeks. Tehran and its allies hit back against Israel, Gulf states and targets critical to the world’s energy production.

The intensity of the attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. Safe havens in the Mideast like Dubai have seen incoming fire; hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are stranded around the globe; oil prices shot up; and U.S. allies pledged to help stop Iranian missiles and drones.

With no sign of the conflict abating anytime soon, Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”

He said U.S. forces were determined to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., said the conflict would continue “as long as it takes.” An Israeli military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said Israel is keeping “all options on the table,” including a potential ground invasion of Lebanon.

The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American F-15E Strike Eagles while Iran was attacking with aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely and are in stable condition.

AP has this one.

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Let’s not distract from the fact that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s sit-down interview on Peter Mansbridge’s podcast is now live.

Poilievre is in the U.K. and Germany this week for a rare international visit. He told the (UK) Times that he will meet with his British Tory counterpart Kemi Badenoch and potentially, controversial Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Have a great night!