#India# Canada# PM Modi# Mark Carney# Justin Trudeau# Nijjar Singh Murder
IBNS-CMEDIA: India and Canada named new high commissioners to each other’s capitals on Thursday as aimed to restore relations 10 months after expelling envoys in a dispute over an alleged political assassination.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand informed that Christopher Cooter will be Canada’s new High Commissioner to India.
Meanwhile, India’s foreign ministry said it will assign its current envoy to Spain, Dinesh Patnaik, to Ottawa “shortly.”
Diplomatic relations between the two nations hit a low point in 2023 following tensions related to Khalistani separatist movements and the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats.
However, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney aimed to improve the ties and invited Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit.
The relationship between India and Canada touched an all-time low during the tenure of former PM Justin Trudeau following the death of Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
A diplomatic row between the two countries began after Trudeau alleged India’s role in the killing of the Khalistani leader.
In June 2023, Nijjar, who was a Canadian citizen, was gunned down close to the Vancouver gurdwara.
Trudeau continuously alleged ‘agents’ of the Indian government were behind Nijjar’s killing.
The Indian government continuously rejected all allegations levelled against it.
India and Canada had then expelled and recalled senior diplomats with ties reaching their lowest points at the end of Trudeau’s tenure.
In January 2025, a Canadian commission, probing into alleged foreign interference in its electoral processes and democratic institutions, in its report stated that “no definitive link” with a “foreign state” in connection with the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was “proven”.
The Indian government’s position was vindicated by the report.
Canadian politics soon witnessed a massive change with Mark Carney taking charge of the Liberal Party and becoming the Prime Minister after Trudeau stepped down from the post, ending his 10-year rule.
