The first visit by a Canadian foreign minister to Pakistan in almost two decades reads as an admission of how badly an important relationship has been neglected. Foreign Minister Anita Anand’s meetings in Islamabad produced the right list of priorities–trade, investment, agriculture, mining, energy, automobiles, education and labour mobility–along with a phytosanitary protocol for Canadian canola and an undertaking to keep working towards an investment-protection agreement.
The economic base is respectable, though still far below what the relationship can sustain (bilateral merchandise trade reached roughly Rs 238 billion in 2025). With more than 300,000 Canadians of Pakistani origin, and Pakistan as Canada’s eighth-largest source of permanent residents last year, surely, a relationship with such dense human links should not have to wait 20 years for ministerial attention.
For decades, the relationship has been carried more reliably by migrants, students and development cooperation than by sustained commercial policy. Canada provided approximately Rs22 billion in international assistance to Pakistan in 2024-25. The challenge now is to move from an aid-and-diaspora relationship towards one in which businesses, universities, regulators and investors meet routinely rather than episodically.
Islamabad and Ottawa have also agreed to sign a new protocol governing imports of Canadian canola, which have already totalled approximately Rs 84.5 billion. Yet that success also reveals the narrowness of the trade basket. Canada sees openings in agri-food, clean technology, energy, ICT and education. Unless the two sides widen these channels, trade will remain vulnerable to the fortunes of a few commodities and diaspora demand.
The proposed Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement is an older test of seriousness. Canada and Pakistan had already held a third round of negotiations in 2012; Ottawa hosted the second round of renewed talks only last month. Fourteen years of drift cannot be repackaged as momentum. Any agreement must provide predictable protection for investors while preserving the state’s legitimate regulatory authority.
The immediate measure of Pakistan’s investment climate is Reko Diq. Toronto-based Barrick owns nearly half of one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold projects. In April, the company said it would slow development and continue its review until mid-2027 because of escalating security risks. Islamabad cannot credibly advertise new mineral concessions to Canadian companies without addressing the concerns of the largest Canadian investor already present.
The promise to exchange trade and mineral delegations and hold annual reviews should, thus, now be converted into hard, enforceable deadlines. *