Mansoor’s Musings: Mansoor Ladha

By Mansoor Ladha on June 25, 2025.

Prime Minister Mark Carney scored a major personal, national and international victory by his skillful, successful, diplomatic and focused performance as host of the G7 summit in Kananaskis. Carney also boosted his image by holding bilateral meetings with Trump and other world leaders, aimed at benefitting Canada in years ahead.

Even President Trump, who is accustomed to craving limelight and attention to himself, complimented host Carney as “a good man … a good representative of Canada,” forgetting his usual outbursts about annexing beautiful Canada as a 51st state. I couldn’t help noticing that when Carney was making his opening remarks, Trump, seated on his left, looked noticeably bored and unconcerned. The icing on the cake was when Carney’s office disclosed that the U.S. president agreed to negotiate a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S. by mid-July. We hope there are no surprises.

Carney also seemed to impress several world leaders who attended the summit. French President Emmanuel Macron, who will host the G7 next year, said that Carney fulfilled his mission as G7 host by keeping the multilateral body united. “We shouldn’t ask the Canadian presidency to resolve every issue on earth today. That would be unfair,” said Macron. “But he held the group together. He did it with his characteristic elegance and determination.”

Carney positioned Canada as a leading supporter of Ukraine among G7 countries by promising $4.3 billion in new support for Ukraine’s defence, including $2 billion for weapons like drones, ammunition and armoured vehicles and a $2.3-billion loan to help Ukraine rebuild its infrastructure.

Since taking office, Prime Minister Carney has successfully steered the country in the right direction, but I vehemently disagree with him on the India file. Carney’s decision to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to G7 summit was wrong. Relations with India have been on shaky ground since former prime minister Justin Trudeau and the RCMP alleged that Indian agents were involved in killing Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Canadian Khalistani separatist in Surrey, B.C. in 2023.

The RCMP has confirmed there’s credible evidence Indian agents were involved in the assassination of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil. After the Nijjar allegations were made public, Canada expelled Indian diplomats, and the Foreign Interference Commission’s Final report identified India as a top meddler in Canadian affairs.

According to police, former NDP leader Jagmeet Singh had a credible risk to his life in 2023 and had to place tight security around him for 18 months. Do we need any more examples of the activities of Indian agents in Canada?

Carney justified his invitation to Modi by saying Canada wanted to discuss energy security, critical minerals and the development of artificial intelligence – three of his stated priorities for this meeting of world leaders – and it’s “hard to have those discussions without India,” ignoring the fact that RCMP probe into India’s ongoing involvement was still not finalized. How can Canada justify inviting a head of state of a country whose involvement in killing Canadians at home is still underway.

India happens to be my favourite travel destination. I have always enjoyed visiting India as a travel writer and as a tourist. My ancestors hailed from Gujarat, the province where Narendra Modi, was chief minister before becoming prime minister; they emigrated to Africa in the 19th century. As a third generation Indian born in Africa, India always held an emotional significance for me and many other East Africa-born Indians.

But I have watched in disbelief the communal violence against Muslims in India undertaken with Modi’s blessings. I have been disgusted at the direction Modi is taking India; he has stripped Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state, of its special status as an autonomous region and has amended its citizenship law to incorporate a religious criterion for the first time, giving priority to Hindus, and followers of other south Asian religions, over Muslims.

Ever since Modi was first elected Prime Minister in 2014, he has been rewriting the story of India, from that of a secular democracy accommodating a uniquely diverse population to that of a Hindu nation that dominates its minorities, especially the country’s two hundred million Muslims. Modi and his allies have squeezed, bullied, and stifled the press into endorsing what they call the “New India.”

Canada, renowned as a welcoming country for minorities fleeing from disasters, upheavals, wars and discrimination, has now bent over these noble sentiments to invite Modi as a leader of the world’s most populous country round the table, according to PM Carney. What hypocrisy!

Canadians were anxiously awaiting that President Trump would have an announcement about tariffs on Canadians goods but his early departure from the meeting was disheartening, especially for Ukraine’s efforts to achieve peace with Russia. Ukraine has accepted every proposal Trump has offered since mid-March, and Russia has rejected them all. It was disappointing that Trump also missed a planned side meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Now that G7 Summit has ended, it would be worthwhile to ask if G7 is equipped to address and solve today’s complex geopolitical landscape? The 2025 summit exposed some refits between G7 members and the U.S. on crucial international issues. The absence of a joint communique displayed divisions among leaders of the world’s most powerful economies, particularly when Trump asserted that ejecting Russia from the group was a mistake.

While we celebrate the 50th anniversary of G7, we shouldn’t forget that we are facing world crisis such as the war in Ukraine, Israeli conflict with Iran and Palestine, U.S.’s involvement in Iran and other global issues. I wonder if G7 has become a talking shop much like the United Nations Security Council, unable to address many of the challenges of the 21st century. We’ll have to wait to determine that when France takes over the presidency of G7 in 2026.

Mansoor Ladha is a Calgary-based journalist, travel writer and author of Aga Khan: Bridge between East & West, Memoirs of a Muhindi: Fleeing East Africa for the West, Off the Cuff and A Portrait in Pluralism: Aga Khan’s Shia Ismaili Muslims. His latest book, Canadian Experience is scheduled to be published in July 2025.

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