Prime Ministers Modi and Carney agree on steps to strengthen bilateral ties
Two years after a major rupture in ties, India and Canada have agreed to restore high commissioners in Delhi and Ottawa and discuss 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 side-lines of the G7-outreach session in Kananaskis, where India was a special invitee.
“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 next month, once Canada names its nominee. New Delhi has already forwarded the name of India’s Ambassador to Spain Dinesh Patnaik to Ottawa as its nominee, it is learned.
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 Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar gunned down in Canada two years ago, which led to a rift in bilateral ties after the former 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” (TNR), 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 TNR 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 US 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 like the UK and Germany have raised their concerns over the targeting of activists bilaterally. Meanwhile a report by the Canadian intelligence services CSIS submitted to parliament and due to be released publicly on Wednesday, will say that the said the 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 Globe and Mail newspaper reported, indicating the issue could continue to impact bilateral ties the breakthrough in 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 last year, the matter escalated after Canada expelled 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”.
The resignation of Mr. Trudeau from office and the election of his party colleague Mark Carney in April this year has allowed a relaxation in ties
