Hodgson also praised India for agreeing to a trade deal with the European Union. “What you just did with the EU, signing the mother of all deals, was a perfect example of how to say no, we’re not going to live in a world where might makes right,” he said.
“The rules-based order that we all have been building our economies around, one that was based on multilateralism, one that was based on free trade, the hegemons of the world have decided that’s not the way the world’s going to work anymore. They’ve decided the world will work in a much more mercantilist way,” Hodgson said, building on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s remarks at Davos last week that the world is “in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” and that middle powers should come together.
India and Canada have experienced a rough patch in diplomatic relations in recent years, but growing friction with the US over tariffs is bringing the two countries closer.
“I don’t need to tell India what it means when people use their economic integration with your country for coercion,” Hodgson said. “I don’t need to tell you what it means when hegemons use tariffs as leverage.”
“I’m here because, like you, the way to resist that change is to build multilateral relationships and to double down on diversification of supplies,” he said.
Canada is one of the world’s largest sources of oil, gas and critical minerals, but remains heavily dependent on the US for exports. Canada currently supplies a small amount of energy to India. Indian oil firms have some investments in Canadian upstream assets.“We see the opportunity to work with India,” he said. “The fastest growing demand for energy in the world will be in India, whether it’s LNG, LPG, uranium.”
Canada is building more energy infrastructure to help export supplies globally, Hodgson said. “That is because we believe the world we want to live in is one where we’re going to trade with everyone. We will never use our energy for coercion.”