NEW DELHI (AP) — India and Canada on Monday agreed to strengthen their economic partnership, in a move aimed at boosting ties after two years of strained relationship.
Speaking after talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two countries would soon finalize a “comprehensive economic partnership” which is expected to increase bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030.
India and Canada began advancing negotiations on a long-pending trade agreement last year, as Carney moved to re-engage with New Delhi, restore diplomatic channels and stabilize ties between the two countries.
Carney said the two sides were aiming to conclude the deal by the end of the year.
“This is not merely the renewal of a relationship. It is the expansion of a valued partnership with new ambition, focus, and foresight,” Carney said.
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.
The fallout saw both sides expel senior diplomats and suspend some visa services.
Relations improved last year in June when Carney invited Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta.
After the talks on Monday, Modi said India and Canada signed a nuclear agreement under which Canada will supply uranium to India. The two countries would also work to strengthen defense industries and enhance maritime domain awareness, he said.
Officials from both sides also exchanged a series of memoranda of understanding spanning areas including critical minerals, energy and cultural cooperation.
Carney is expected to leave for Australia and Japan later Monday, part of his effort to diversify trade away from the United States. He 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.
Prime Minister Mark Carney meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Monday, March 2, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, shakes hands with his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney before their delegation level meeting in New Delhi, India, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, Monday, March 2, 2026. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and Iranian-backed militias fired missiles at Israel and Arab states, apparently hitting the U.S. Embassy compound in Kuwait, while Israel and the United States pounded targets in Iran as the war expanded on Monday with statements of defiance and increasing casualties.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said Monday that the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign on Iran has killed at least 555 people so far in the Islamic Republic. It added that 131 cities across Iran have come under attack so far in the war.
In Kuwait City, as fire and smoke rose from inside the U.S. Embassy compound, the country's defense ministry said “several” American warplanes had also crashed in the country. The ministry did not elaborate on what caused the crashes or how many aircraft were involved, but said the pilots had been taken to a hospital and were in stable condition. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The embassy compound was hit not long after U.S. issued a warning to Americans there to take cover and for others to stay away. There were no immediate reports on damage or casualties.
Meantime, as the American and Israeli airstrikes continued, top Iranian security official Ali Larijani vowed on X that “we will not negotiate with the United States.”
In Iraq, a pro-Iranian militia claimed responsibility for a drone attack targeting U.S. troops at the Baghdad airport, the day after it said it fired at a U.S. base in the city of Irbil in the north, and Cyprus said a drone attack targeted a British base on the Mediterranean island nation.
Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.
With world markets already rattled by the fighting and oil prices soaring, Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura oil refinery came under attack Monday from drones, with defenses downing the incoming aircraft, a military spokesman made the announcement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
Online videos from the site appeared to show thick black smoke rising after the attack. Even successfully intercepted drones cause debris that can spark fires and injure those on the ground.
Ras Tanura, near Dammam, has a capacity over half a million barrels of crude oil a day.
Iran’s decision to expands its attacks to major regional oil infrastructure add a new element to the war gripping the Middle East, directly targeting the lifeblood of the area's economy.
Already, Iran has been threatening ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. Several ships have been attacked as well there.
As the attacks on Iran continued, Hezbollah said it fired missiles from Lebanon into Israel early Monday in response to the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and “repeated Israeli aggressions.” There were no reports of injuries or damage, and Israel said that it had intercepted one projectile while several fell in open areas.
Israel retaliated with strikes on Lebanon, killing at least 31 people and wounding 149 others, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. About two thirds of the dead were in the country's south.
Lebanon’s government said it was holding an emergency meeting after Hezbollah’s attack on Israel triggered the Israeli airstrikes.
Iran has been firing missiles at Israel and Arab states in a counteroffensive since the joint America-Israeli attack Saturday that killed Khamenei and many top Iranian officials.
Gulf Arab states have warned that they could retaliate against Iran after strikes that hit key sites and killed at least five civilians, and U.S. President Donald Trump promised Washington would “avenge” the deaths of three American troops who were killed in Kuwait, while predicting more casualties.
“Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends,” Trump said. “That’s the way it is.”
Trump has urged Iranians to “take over” their government and, while he has also signaled he would be open to dialogue with new leadership there following the death of Khamenei, suggested Sunday there was no end in sight to the military operations.
“Combat operations continue at this time in full-force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved,” he said in a video message. “We have very strong objectives,” he added, without elaborating.
The U.S. military said B-2 stealth bombers struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been sunk and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”
Others have mostly stayed out of the war and pressed for diplomacy. But in an indication that the conflict could draw in other nations, Britain, France and Germany said Sunday they were ready to work with the U.S. to help stop Iran’s attacks.
Early Monday, Cyprus said an uncrewed drone “caused limited damage” when it hit a British air base on the southern coast. Further details were not immediately available, but it came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. would help the U.S. in the war against Iran.
The weekend attacks were the second time in eight months that the U.S. and Israel had combined against Iran, in a startling show of military might for an American president elected on an “America First” platform and pledged to keep out of “forever wars.”
In the 12-day war last June, Israeli and American strikes greatly weakened Iran’s air defenses, military leadership and nuclear program. But the killing of Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades, creates a leadership vacuum, increasing the risk of regional instability.
Hezbollah’s launch of missiles at Israel was the first time in more than a year that the militant group has claimed an attack.
Iran’s proxies were a chief concern for American and Israeli officials before they suspended negotiations with Iran last week and moved ahead with strikes on Iran.
Israel said the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group had “joined the campaign” alongside Iran as it retaliated with strikes on Beirut, Lebanon's capital.
Associated Press journalists in Beirut were jolted awake by a series of loud explosions that shook buildings and caused windows to shatter. Warplanes could be heard flying low overhead.
“The strikes continue,” said Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo, head of Israel’s Northern Command. “Their intensity will increase.”
The Iraqi Shiite militia Saraya Awliya al-Dam claimed a drone attack Monday targeting U.S. troops at the airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, further widening the retaliation over the killing of Khamenei. It had claimed a drone attack on Sunday against a U.S. air base in Irbil, in Iraq’s north.
The group is one of a number of Shiite militias operating in Iraq. The U.S. and Iraq did not immediately comment on the claims.
In the Persian Gulf, Iran’s retaliatory strikes pushed the conflict into cities that have long marketed themselves as regional safe havens. Three people were reported killed in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities said most Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted. But some either got through or fell as debris, causing the deaths and significant damage. Bahrain and Kuwait said Iranian strikes in both countries hit civilian targets outside the U.S. bases where Iran had pledged to retaliate.
Tehran’s streets are largely deserted as people have been sheltering during airstrikes, witnesses told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for fear of retribution. The paramilitary Basij, which has played a central role in crushing protests, set up checkpoints across the city, they said.
In Israel, rescue services have confirmed several locations have been hit by Iranian missiles, including Jerusalem and a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, where nine people were killed and 28 wounded, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11.
The World Health Organization called Monday for sparing civilians and healthcare facilities in the Middle East amid the escalating conflict.
“The protection of civilians and health care must be absolute,” Hanan Balkhy, regional dietitian at WHO wrote on social media. “All parties must … ensure medical facilities remain protected.”
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report.
Iraqi Shiites hold pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Tehran, during a symbolic funeral, in Najaf, Iraq, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
This image provided by U.S. Central Command shows a F/A-18F Super Hornet preparing to make an arrested landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)) in support of Operation Epic Fury, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (U.S. Navy via AP)
In this photo taken with a slow shutter speed, a Middle East Airlines plane flies over Beirut as smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh in Beirut's southern suburbs, early Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man takes pictures of the damage in an apartment building after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
This image provided by U.S. Central Command shows a Navy sailor observing flight operations aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)) in support of Operation Epic Fury, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (U.S. Navy via AP)
Iraqi Shiites hold pictures of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Tehran, during a symbolic funeral, in Najaf, Iraq, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
