Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Mark Carney’s bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, India and Canada Wednesday agreed to designate new high commissioners in their capitals aiming to return to regular services to citizens and businesses in both countries.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, while speaking about the meeting, said: “The Prime Ministers agreed to take calibrated steps to restore stability to this very important relationship and the first of these steps that was agreed on was to restore High Commissioners to each other’s capitals at an early date. Other diplomatic steps will follow in due course.”
A statement in this regard was also issued by the office of the Canadian Prime Minister, stating that Carney and Modi reaffirmed the importance of Canada-India ties based upon mutual respect, the rule of law, and a commitment to the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity. “The leaders agreed to designate new high commissioners, with a view to returning to regular services to citizens and businesses in both countries,” the statement added.
In October last year, diplomatic ties between the two nations had hit a low after India had expelled six Canadian diplomats. New Delhi had also announced that it was withdrawing its High Commissioner Sanjay Verma and other “targeted” officials from Canada after strongly dismissing Ottawa’s allegations linking the envoy to a probe into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in a major downturn in already frosty ties between the two nations.
Verma was declared a “person of interest” by Canada in its investigation into the June 2023 killing of Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who has been declared a Khalistani terrorist by India.