DELHI — Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in New Delhi on Sunday evening, ahead of a Monday meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Carney walked off the plane and down a red carpet lined by an Indian military honour guard. Nearby was a group of Bihu dancers, who performed in front of a large poster featuring photos of Carney and Modi.
Photos of Carney also lined the road outside the airport in New Delhi, where Carney is visiting as part of an ongoing reset of the trade and diplomatic relationship with India.
He said a day earlier Canada is aiming to sign a comprehensive trade deal with India, which would double two-way trade by 2030. He spent Sunday meeting with Indian Oil chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney, Coal India chairman and managing director Shri B. Sairam and Dilip Asbe, CEP and managing director of the National Payments Corporation Of India.
The trip has become somewhat overshadowed by the attacks on Iran. Carney said Saturday that while he supports the U.S. action in Iran, Canada will not get directly involved in the conflict.
Carney made the comments before it was confirmed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in American and Israeli military attacks on the Middle Eastern country.
Neither Carney nor Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have commented yet on Khamenei’s death.
The conflict left government representatives in India scrambling for communications devices.
Politicians, government staff and many members of the media travelling with the prime minister are using temporary burner devices while in the country for security reasons, and had left their regular laptops and phones in special bags that block signals on the government plane after landing in Mumbai earlier in the week.
But after journalists got on the plane to fly to New Delhi Sunday, some noticed their bags and devices had been moved.
Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson Audrey Champoux said in a statement that given the events in the Middle East, “certain government telecommunications devices were moved by Canadian security officials from where they were being stored in case of being needed on an emergency basis.” The statement did not specify what those communications devices were.
“Devices belonging to members of the press were inadvertently moved as well, although officials have confirmed that they remained secured, were not opened or accessed, and were returned to their location upon officials’ discovery of the error.”
Many of the reporters on the plane did not find their devices in the location where they had been left, leaving them searching the plane for their phones and laptops.
Anand said in a statement earlier that attacks by Iran against Canada’s partners in the Middle East must stop.
She said in online posts she strongly condemns the targeting of Qatar and stands with the United Arab Emirates as it defends itself against escalation by Iran.
“We will continue to provide all possible support to Canadians throughout the region and urge Canadians in Iran to shelter in place,” Anand said in a statement.
Iran has responded to the latest strikes by launching missiles and drones toward Israel and targeting U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
At an event Saturday, Carney called Iran the “principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East” and said it must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon.
U.S. President Donald Trump justified the military action by claiming that Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program and plans to develop missiles to reach the U.S. Trump also listed grievances stretching back to the beginning of the Islamic Republic.
Carney said he and his finance and foreign affairs ministers have had a series of discussions in recent weeks with Trump and top officials about “the possibility of this happening” if diplomatic efforts were not successful.
Experts told The Canadian Press that Canada’s support for U.S. strikes against Iran could come with security risks, as the regime looks to retaliate against perceived enemies abroad.
Thomas Juneau, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s school of public and international affairs, pointed to a pattern of “transnational repression — targeting of Iranian-Canadian dissidents, human rights or democratic activists.”
Now in an existential fight, the regime may well pull out all the cyber-stops.
“The Iranian state is now facing a fight to the finish, to its elimination effectively. They have in their minds absolutely nothing to lose,” Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation, said in comments before Khamenei’s death was confirmed.
Iran and affiliated groups have carried out numerous campaigns against far-flung foes. State-aligned cyberwarfare groups have monitored and harassed dissidents in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Germany and elsewhere.
In 2024, the House of Commons condemned an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026.
– With files from Chris Reynolds in Montreal and The Associated Press
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
