India, Canada To Designate New High Commissioners After Modi-Carney Hit Diplomatic Reset At G7

At the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and the two leaders agreed to designate new high commissioners.

According to an official statement of the Canadian government, the leaders 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 two nations have agreed to appoint the new high commissioners with a view to returning to regular services to citizens and businesses in both countries.

India-Canada relations hit rock bottom following then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's allegations in 2023 of a potential Indian link to the killing of Sikh extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. After Trudeau's exit, New Delhi said it hoped to rebuild ties with Canada based on "mutual trust and sensitivity."

In October last year, India expelled six Canadian diplomats and announced 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 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. Before Canada could take further action, New Delhi recalled Verma and five other diplomats, who were also similarly named.

"This is the pits. This is the most unprofessional approach to a bilateral relation. There are diplomatic tools available in the hands of a diplomat. Those tools could have been used" instead of seeking to interrogate a country's top envoy and other diplomats, Verma had said in an interview with PTI.

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