Canada's presence there will definitely help trade between the two countries,'' said former Canada-India Business Council president Kam Rathee.

With the two-way trade between India and China is still less than $5 billion, Rathee told IANS: 'Canada is lagging other countries in its initiative towards India. The proposed foreign investment protection agreement is yet to be signed and the nuclear agreement may take a lot of time.''

The two countries have already exchanged many drafts to sign a nuclear agreement on the lines India has signed with the US and France.

Canadian companies are eyeing the multi-billion nuclear market in India. Canada is looking to Europe and Asia, particularly China and India, to lessen dependence on the US which accounts more than 80 percent Canadian trade.

(Gurmukh Singh can be contacted at gurmukh.s@ians.in)