NEW DELHI (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Mumbai on Friday for his first official visit to India, seeking to reset relations and deepen trade cooperation with New Delhi after ties deteriorated in recent years under his predecessor.
During his four-day trip, Carney is set to hold talks with business leaders and will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday.
India’s foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday that the meeting between the two leaders would offer an opportunity to reaffirm “the positive momentum and shared vision” for a forward-looking partnership. Talks between Modi and Carney are expected to cover cooperation in trade and investment, energy, critical minerals and technology, the ministry said.
Carney will also visit Australia and Japan next week, part of his effort to diversify trade away from the United States. Carney has set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports in the next decade, saying American tariffs are causing a chill in investment
Canada and India moved last year to advance a trade deal after two years of strained relations.
Ties deteriorated after Canadian authorities alleged that India was involved in the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist near Vancouver in June 2023. New Delhi vehemently denied the allegations and accused former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government of harboring Sikh extremists of the Khalistan movement. The movement, which aims to create an independent Sikh homeland, is banned in India.
Relations improved last year in June when Carney invited Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta.
Canada is not the only country that has accused Indian officials of plotting an assassination on foreign soil.
In 2023, U.S. federal prosecutors accused an Indian government official of overseeing a foiled attempt to assassinate another Sikh separatist figure in New York. A man from India admitted earlier this month that he conspired to hire a hitman to assassinate the Sikh separatist leader.
In this photo provided by Indian Prime Minister's Office, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the AI Summit in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Indian Prime Minister's Office via AP)
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Diana Fox Carney board a government plane in Ottawa on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his wife Diana Fox Carney board a government plane in Ottawa on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan and Afghanistan traded attacks in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the countries that Pakistan’s defense minister said Friday means they are now in “open war.”
Tensions have been high between the neighbors for months, with border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that then stage attacks across the border and also of allying with its archrival India.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the fighting, although the two sides still occasionally trade fire. Several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
Late Thursday, Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday.
Pakistan then carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday.
After the strikes Friday, Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said in an X post that Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country, to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability.
Instead, he said that the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” with which Pakistan has periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. India has had improved ties with Afghanistan recently, offering to enhance bilateral trade, to the annoyance of Islamabad.
“Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us,” he said. There was no immediate reaction from Afghan officials.
Afghan authorities in the eastern Nangarhar province said that fighting was ongoing in the Torkham border area Friday morning. The province's information directorate said that Pakistani mortar fire hit civilian areas in Torkham, including a refugee camp, which had been evacuated overnight. In response, Afghanistan was targeting Pakistani army posts across the border, it said.
Asif, the Pakistani defense minister, accused Afghanistan of “exporting terrorism.” Islamabad frequently levies the allegation at its western neighbor as militant violence has surged in Pakistan, accusing Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups.
Pakistan accuses the TTP — which is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban — of operating from inside Afghanistan. Both the group and Kabul deny that charge.
Pakistan has also frequently accused neighboring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies.
Asif's comments came hours after Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as well as in Kandahar in the south and Paktia province in the southeast, according to Pakistani officials and Afghanistan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid. Pakistan said the strikes were in retaliation for the Afghan cross-border attacks.
Afghanistan, meanwhile, said that it launched its attack late Thursday also in retaliation — for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday.
The governments have issued sharply differing casualty claims. Each said that it inflicted heavy losses of dozens of soldiers on the other, while putting its own casualty figures in the single digits. The claims couldn't be independently verified.
Afghanistan also claimed it had captured an undisclosed number of Pakistani soldiers. Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, a spokesperson for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied any soldiers had been captured.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan’s anti-drone systems shot down several small drones over the northwestern cities of Abbottabad, Swabi, and Nowshera on Friday. He said the drones appeared to be part of a failed attack by the Pakistani Taliban, and that there were no casualties. Tarar claimed the drone attacks “once again exposed direct linkages between the Afghan Taliban regime and terrorism in Pakistan.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held separate phone calls with his Pakistani, Afghan, Qatari and Saudi counterparts on Friday to discuss the conflict, a Turkish official said, without providing details on the talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
In October, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had facilitated talks between the sides.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged both sides to protect civilians as required under international law and “to continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Russia called for an immediate halt to the fighting and for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov told news agency Ria Novosti. Kabulov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said that Moscow would consider mediating between the two countries if asked, according to Ria Novosti.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences through dialogue during the holy month of Ramadan. He also said that Tehran was ready to assist in facilitating dialogue.
Pakistani authorities said that dozens of Afghan refugees in the Torkham border area had been relocated to safer places.
Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.
Since then, millions have crossed the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there.
Last year alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, the U.N. refugee agency has said, with nearly 80,000 having returned so far this year.
Abdul Qahar Afghan reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, Eduardo Castillo in Beijing, Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, also contributed to this story.
People read morning newspapers covering headline story about overnight cross border fighting between Pakistan and Afghan forces, at a stall in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
Smoke rises after an explosion at a border post on the Afghan side of the Ghulam Khan crossing with Pakistan in Khost province, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
Taliban fighters look up while manning an armed pickup truck at the Afghan side of the Ghulam Khan crossing with Pakistan in Khost province, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)
A man, who was injured in the overnight cross border fighting between Pakistan and Afghan forces, receives treatment at a hospital in Khar, in Bajaur, a district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering with Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)
A villager looks at damaged solar plates and a portion following overnight cross border fighting between Pakistan and Afghan forces, at a village in Bajaur, a district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering with Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo)
Afghan Taliban soldiers gather on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
Afghan Taliban soldiers walk along the main road on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
Afghan Taliban soldiers look toward the Pakistani side, with one peering through the sight of his rifle, on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
An Afghan Taliban soldier gives instructions to drivers on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
Afghan Taliban soldiers stand on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
