How the India-Canada nuclear pact exorcises the ghost of Trudeaus

India has finally exorcised the ghost of the Trudeaus, and how. Indo-Canada ties hit rock bottom with Justin Trudeau as the Canadian PM. Before this, the chill in bilateral ties was seen during the premiership of Justin Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, in the 1970s. The souring of ties was over India's nuclear programme. With India inking a deal with PM Mark Carney-led Canada on nuclear cooperation this week, the relationship has come full circle.

India and Canada on March 2 signed a landmark 10-year nuclear energy agreement, worth $2.6 billion, for the supply of Canadian uranium concentrate to Indian nuclear reactors. The deal, signed during Canadian PM Mark Carney's visit to India, marks a dramatic reset in relations between New Delhi and Ottawa, which had recently reached a nadir following accusations of political interference and assassinations made by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

However, this is not the first time the two countries have cooperated on nuclear energy. The 2026 deal operates under the 2010 India-Canada Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement signed by then PM Manmohan Singh and Stephen Harper, which enabled exports of Canadian nuclear technology and fuel to India. But more importantly, it was Canada that had an outsized role in nurturing India's nuclear energy ambitions.

HOW INDIA'S NUCLEAR TEST ENDED CANADA COOPERATION

Ottawa helped build India's second nuclear reactor, the Canada-India Reactor Utility Services (CIRUS), designed under the supervision of Homi Jehangir Bhabha, widely considered the father of India’s nuclear programme. Canada also assisted in developing Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors, which generate energy using natural uranium fuel, an advantage for countries like India that lacked enrichment facilities.

The first such reactor was the 200 MWe Rajasthan Atomic Power Station unit 1 (RAPS-1), which began operations in 1973.

This early phase of cooperation, however, came to a halt in the 1970s. In 1974, India carried out its first nuclear test, Operation Smiling Buddha, which it described as a "peaceful nuclear explosion," using plutonium derived from the CIRUS reactor.

India argued the test did not violate conditions imposed by Canada and the US, which required the technology to be used only for peaceful purposes. A declassified 1972 US State Department report noted that the agreements did not explicitly prohibit peaceful nuclear explosions.

But Canada’s then prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, disagreed. Following the test, Ottawa withdrew support for India’s nuclear programme and recalled Canadian officials working on RAPS-2, according to research published by Columbia University.

The move triggered decades of strained ties between the two countries, a rift the 2026 agreement signed by Carney and Narendra Modi now seeks to close.

WHAT WAS CANADA'S ROLE IN INDIA'S CIVIL NUCLEAR ENERGY PROGRAMME?

India had nurtured nuclear energy ambitions even before Independence in 1947. As early as March 1946, an Atomic Research Committee was established under the leadership of Homi Jehangir Bhabha to explore India's atomic resources and develop links with similar organisations abroad.

India's first reactor, Apsara, was built at Trombay in 1955 with assistance from the United Kingdom. Named by then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the 1 MW research reactor achieved criticality in 1956. When we refer to a nuclear reactor going critical, it means that the nuclear chain reaction within the reactor has reached a self-sustaining state, producing a steady amount of heat and energy.

Canada accelerated India's nuclear ambitions.

In the 1950s, under the Colombo Plan and as well as US President Dwight Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiatives which opened nuclear power technology transfers to developing countries, Canada supplied the CIRUS research reactor, which achieved criticality in 1960. CIRUS was a 40 MW heavy-water-moderated facility at Trombay, which used US supplied heavy water, and Canada supplied uranium. This marked India's entry into advanced nuclear research and isotope production.

Building on this, Canada signed a 1963 agreement with India to collaborate on the development of India-specific pressurised heavy-water reactors (PHWRs) based on CANDU technology, which uses natural uranium and heavy water, well suited to India's limited uranium enrichment capabilities.

According to the World Nuclear Association, the agreement led to the development of Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) units, RAPS-1 and RAPS-2,with Canada providing design, training, and components through Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).

These transfers ultimately enabled India to develop its own indigenous nuclear reactor, which is the IPHWR (Indian Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor), that now form the backbone of India's civil nuclear energy power sector.

WHY SMILING BUDDHA LED TRUDEAU SENIOR TO SCRAP NUCLEAR COOPERATION

Canadian nuclear technology and fuel, along with US heavy water, were supplied to India on the understanding that they would be used exclusively for civilian purposes such as research and power generation.

The Canada-India Agreement for CIRUS of 1956, The US-India Heavy Water Supply for CIRUS of 1956, and the Canada-India Agreement for Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) of 1963, all had one thing in common, that being, the materials and technology being supplied to India were only for peaceful purposes. This was further reinforced in 1971, during then PM Pierre Trudeau's visit to India, when he stated that both countries had reached an understanding that any nuclear explosion conducted by India would be seen as non-peaceful and trigger a reassessment or cutoff of aid.

That being said, as the years passed, the need for nuclear weapons became more and more pressing for India. As early as 26 June 1946, PM Jawaharlal Nehru had stated that "if India is threatened, she will inevitably try to defend herself by all means at her disposal", referring to nuclear weapons, even though he himself was not in favour of their employment.

Meanwhile, Homi Jehangir Bhabha strongly advocated developing nuclear weapons capability, particularly after India's defeat in the SinoIndian War of 1962.

Using plutonium produced as a by-product of the CIRUS reactor, scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre led by Raja Ramanna built India's first nuclear device, which was detonated at the Pokhran Test Range in 1974 as part of Operation Smiling Buddha.

India maintained the explosion was peaceful. A 1972 US State Department assessment had noted that peaceful nuclear explosions were not explicitly barred by existing agreements.

With Smiling Buddha having used plutonium from the Canada-supplied CIRUS reactor, Pierre Trudeau's administration strongly criticised the test and concluded that the test violated a 1971 understanding between the two states which was made during his visit to India.

Canada froze all nuclear energy assistance for India, including pulling out Canadian personnel engaged in the construction of the RAPS-2 reactor, according to research published by Columbia University. In sharp contrast, the US, which also criticised the test, concluded that it had not violated any agreement and proceeded with a June 1974 shipment of enriched uranium for the Tarapur reactor.

This, combined with Canada's mishandling of the 1985 Air India Flight 182 bombing, as well as Pierre's sheltering of Khalistani terrorists at the height of the Khalistan insurgency in India in the 1980s, soured bilateral ties between Ottawa and New Delhi for decades.

HOW THE 2026 AGREEMENT TURNS BACK THE CLOCK IN OTTAWA-NEW DELHI TIES

The freeze in nuclear cooperation imposed in 1974 remained in place until 2010, when India and Canada signed the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement during PM Manmohan Singh's visit to Toronto for the G20 Summit. The agreement reopened the door for Canadian nuclear fuel and technology exports to India.

The improvement in ties would, however, be reversed during the administration of Pierre Trudeau's son, Justin Trudeau, who like his father, nurtured Khalistani elements, much to New Delhi's chagrin.

This started with an invitation issued to Jaspal Atwal, a Sikh Canadian convicted of attempted murder for his role in the 1986 attempt to assassinate Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu, during Trudeau Jr's 2018 visit to India, and peaked with his accusations in Canada's Parliament that Indian intelligence agencies, mainly RAW, had assassinated Khalstani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, and was interfering in Canadian politics.

His successor, Mark Carney, in sharp contrast, has instead worked to rebuild bilateral relations with India. Aside from signing the 2026 deal to supply uranium concentrate for Indian reactors, Carney's administration, in a sharp about-face from his predecessor's public accusations, has said it believes India is not currently linked to violent crimes or threats on Canadian soil.

The uranium supply agreement signals a pragmatic shift in Ottawa's India policy. By reviving nuclear cooperation suspended for decades, not only are both governments attempting to move past historical disputes and recent diplomatic tensions, but they are also exorcising the ghosts of the Trudeaus' periods.

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