Indian PM Modi to visit Cyprus, Canada, and Croatia

New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a three-nation visit to Cyprus, Canada, and Croatia starting Sunday. This will be the first foreign visit of PM Modi since India’s Operation Sindoor, which saw strikes on terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack. The attack by Pakistan-trained terrorists on April 22 saw the brutal killing of over 20 people in India’s famous tourist site of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.

The PM’s first stop during the visit will be in Cyprus, even as India increases its engagement with the wider Mediterranean region. During the visit, PM Modi will meet Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, with the signing of some MoUs also being under consideration.

Cyprus has backed India’s candidacy for the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and actively supported stronger India-EU relations. It is after more than two decades that an Indian Prime Minister is travelling to Cyprus, the last being Atal Bihari Vajpayee in October 2002.

Sources said, “Indian PM Modi’s visit to Cyprus, this Sunday will be important, and will have substantial elements. Cyprus has always helped India, and played a key role during the evacuation of Indians from Libya and Lebanon during the crisis.”

The visit to Cyprus by the Indian PM comes even as Pakistan has close ties with Turkiye, and northern Cyprus is under Turkish occupation, which started after the 1974 Turkish invasion of the country.

India has called for adherence to UNSC resolutions on Cyprus that called for withdrawal of foreign troops from the island and condemned Turkish actions in northern Cyprus, including the establishment of the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

PM Modi then travels to Canada for the G7 summit that takes place in Kananaskis, Alberta. India has been invited to the G7 summit continuously since 2019, as the country’s economic weight grows in the global economy and world political order.

The invite was extended last week by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney amid attempts to salvage India-Canada bilateral ties that suffered a disastrous blow in former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s leadership.

Trudeau had accused Indian involvement in the killing of India-listed terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian national, but gave no evidence to back the charges.

No bilateral agenda has been released so far, and it is not yet known if PM Modi will hold any bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, other than with the host, Canada PM Carney.

If a meeting with US President Trump materialises then this will be the first bilateral between the two since Operation Sindoor.

Trump had claimed that he had played a role in the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, something that India has rejected.

Leaders of Australia, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, and Ukraine are also reported to have been invited to the summit.

The three-nation tour will conclude with PM Modi’s visit to Croatia. The visit was expected to happen last month but was postponed due to the conflict with Pakistan. It is after several decades that an Indian Prime Minister is visiting the Balkans, the last being Indira Gandhi, who visited the then Yugoslavia in 1967.

The focus is on trade ties between the two countries. India’s exports to Croatia include aluminum ingots, chemicals and fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, machinery and equipment, metals, ready-made garments and textiles, rubber, and plastics, while India imports plastic and rubber machinery, instruments and appliances for measuring and testing, food products, and wood products.