Two years after a major rupture in ties, India and Canada have agreed to restore the High Commissioners in Delhi and Ottawa, and discussed restarting talks for a trade agreement, visa services, and other dialogue mechanisms. The decisions came during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with Canada’s newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 outreach session in Kananaskis, Canada, where India is a special invitee.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, speaks as Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney listens before a meeting at the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
| Photo Credit:
AP
“The Prime Ministers agreed to take calibrated steps to restore stability to this very important relationship. The first of these steps agreed upon was to restore High Commissioners to each other’s capitals at an early date,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced after the meeting, adding that “senior and working level mechanisms in a host of areas related to trade, people to people contact, and connectivity” had also been resumed.
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“The leaders also discussed the importance of restarting the stalled negotiations on the Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA), with a view to paving the way for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). They agreed to task their respective officials to engage further in this regard,” Mr. Misri added.
Officials said the appointment of High Commissioners may be processed as early as July, once Canada names it nominee. New Delhi has already forwarded the name of India’s Ambassador to Spain Dinesh Patnaik to Ottawa as its nominee, it is learnt.
In addition, the two Prime Ministers discussed collaborations in “clean energy, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, LNG, food security, critical minerals, higher education, mobility, and supply chain resilience”, a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Significantly, neither side directly referred to the case of the Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Canada two years ago, which led to a rift in bilateral ties after the previous Justin Trudeau government accused the Indian government of orchestrating the killing, and India accused Canada of failing to protect Indian diplomats from Khalistani threats. However, Mr. Carney referred to the problem of ‘transnational repression’, both ahead of talks with Mr. Modi, and in the readout of the meeting.
“PM Carney raised priorities on the G7 agenda, including transnational crime and repression, security, and the rules-based order,” a readout by the Canadian Prime Minister’s office said.
In a joint statement on transnational repression issued separately, G7 leaders condemned all violence and harassment against “dissidents, journalists, human rights defenders, religious minorities, and those identified as part of diaspora communities” by other countries.
The U.S. government has also indicted an Indian official in a similar case involving an alleged assassination plot against another Khalistani activist, but more discreetly than Canada did., while other members, including the U.K. and Germany, have raised their concerns over the targeting of activists bilaterally.
Meanwhile, a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, submitted to the Canadian Parliament and due to be released publicly on Wednesday, will say that the said links between “the government of India and the Nijjar murder signals a significant escalation of India’s repression efforts against the Khalistan movement and a clear intent to target individuals in North America,” the Canadian The Globe and Mail newspaper reported, indicating the issue could continue to impact bilateral ties.
The breakthrough in the Modi-Carney meeting came after two years of recriminatory statements by Delhi and Ottawa, after former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau publicly blamed Indian government agents for the Nijjar killing and plotting attacks on other Canadian-Sikh activists in September 2023, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police implicated Home Minister Amit Shah in its investigations. India denied all the allegations, suspended visa services for Canadians temporarily due to threats faced by Indian diplomats, and expelled nearly two-thirds of the diplomats at the Canadian High Commission, accusing some of carrying out activities not in line with their diplomatic duties.
In October 2024, the matter escalated after Canada expelled the Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma and five diplomats as “persons of interest” in the Nijjar case, while India expelled six Canadian diplomats and accused the Canadian government of supporting “extremism, violence and separatism against India”.
Mr. Trudeau’s resignation from office and the election of his party colleague Mr. Carney in April this year has allowed a relaxation in ties, and Delhi and Ottawa have sought to “reset” them and move on to other issues. It remains to be seen what evidence is brought forward in the Canadian trial, as none has been proffered thus far, and how Delhi and Ottawa navigate ties once the trial begins.
Published – June 18, 2025 06:25 am IST
