Moving to mend ties, Jaishankar and Canada’s Anita Anand hold talks over phone

Jaishankar, in a post on X, said, “Appreciate the telecon with FM @AnitaAnandMP of Canada. Discussed the prospects of India-Canada ties. Wished her a very successful tenure.”

In her post, Anand said, “Thank you Minister @DrSJaishankar for the productive discussion today on strengthening Canada–India ties, deepening our economic cooperation, and advancing shared priorities. I look forward to continuing our work together.”

It remains to be seen whether Ottawa invites Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit, which is being held in Canada, next month. India has been invited by G7 host countries ever since 2019 when France invited Modi to the summit in Biarritz.

Indian-origin Anita Anand, who in the past has served in different capacities including as Canada’s Defence Minister, was sworn in as the new Foreign Minister early this month.

A senior member of Canada’s Liberal Party, 58-year-old Anand took the oath of office with her hand on the Bhagavad Gita, a tradition she had followed during previous Cabinet appointments as well.

She was born on May 20, 1967, in Kentville, Nova Scotia, to Indian immigrant doctor parents, Saroj D Ram and SV Anand who moved to Canada from India in the early 1960s. Her mother is from Punjab, and her father from Tamil Nadu. She has two sisters, Gita and Sonia. She became the first Hindu to serve in Canada’s federal Cabinet in 2019.

But Anand’s real challenge is to bring the India-Canada ties back-on-track, after more than a year-and-half of strain.

Sources told The Indian Express that New Delhi and Ottawa are looking at “restoring their High Commissioners by June this year”. They were expelled in October last year. India’s current Ambassador to Spain, Dinesh Patnaik, is being tapped for the position of the next Indian High Commissioner to Canada, and the process will begin soon, sources said.

Late last month, Modi congratulated Carney on the election victory of the Liberal Party.

Giving an indication of the likely turnaround in ties, Modi had said he looked forward to working with Carney to strengthen the India-Canada partnership and unlock greater opportunities for the people of the two countries.

Ties between India and Canada were severely hit following Trudeau’s allegation of potential involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023. India rejected the allegation as “politically motivated” and “absurd”.

This tension led to downgrading of ties, withdrawal of diplomats, visa services being impacted, and trade not achieving its potential. Last October, after Indian envoy Sanjay Verma was expelled along with more diplomats, India too expelled Canadian diplomats. Canadian consulates were shut because of lack of Canadian officials.

With Trudeau’s exit and defeat of Jagmeet Singh, who leads the New Democratic Party and is viewed by Delhi as a backer of Khalistan separatists in Canada, India hopes that ties will be handled with much more maturity and the wrinkles ironed out by Carney.