At last year’s G7 meeting, Italy seized the chance to strengthen ties with Asia by inviting India to the summit. By excluding India this year, Vina Nadjibulla writes, Canada would lose an opportunity to expand its range of partnerships.Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Vina Nadjibulla is vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

With Canada hosting the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Alberta later this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney faced an early foreign-policy test: whether to invite India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Some voices in Canada – particularly activists in the Sikh diaspora – argued New Delhi should be kept at arm’s length until the investigation into Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s 2023 murder is complete. That impulse is understandable, but it underestimates what is at stake for Canada’s own interests, for the credibility of the G7 and for a rules-based order now strained by Moscow, Beijing and Washington. Inviting Mr. Modi was not a concession, but a strategic necessity. However, with the invitations to other leaders having been sent, it looks unlikely........

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