India appoints Dinesh Patnaik as next High Commissioner to Canada

New Delhi/Ottawa, Aug 28 (IANS) India on Thursday announced that Dinesh K. Patnaik, presently Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, has been appointed as the next High Commissioner to Canada.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Patnaik, a career diplomat belonging to the 1990 batch of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

The appointment comes more than 10 months after New Delhi had withdrawn its previous High Commissioner to Ottawa over the then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's continued "hostility" towards India.

Citing the atmosphere of extremism and violence that had prevailed during Trudeau's tenure, India had withdrawn High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, one of the country's senior most serving diplomats, in October 2014.

The ties between India and Canada had soured after Trudeau alleged in the Canadian Parliament that he had "credible allegations" of India's hand in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

A major diplomatic row had erupted when Canada labelled India's High Commissioner and other diplomats as "persons of interest" in the investigation of Nijjar's death.

India denied all the allegations, calling them "absurd" and "motivated", accusing Ottawa of giving space to extremist and anti-India elements in the country.

"We have no faith in the current Canadian Government's commitment to ensure their security. Therefore, the Government of India has decided to withdraw the High Commissioner and other targetted diplomats and officials. It was also conveyed that India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India," the MEA had had stated after summoning the Canadian Charge d'Affaires in New Delhi on October 14 last year over the "baseless targeting" of the Indian diplomats and officials in Canada.

As the Khalistani extremists in Canada openly targetted Hindus and their places of worship in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also broke his silence on the Trudeau government's leniency towards these groups, including expressions of support from the Canadian PM that emboldened such factions.

However, with Mark Carney taking over as the Canadian PM, some calibrated steps to restore India-Canada ties have been taken, leading to Patnaik's appointment.

In June, Carney extended an invite to PM Modi for the G7 Outreach Summit in Kananaskis and both leaders held a pivotal bilateral meeting aimed at reviving the strained ties between both nations.

The June 18 meeting was described as "very positive and constructive" by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.

As an initial move, both leaders had agreed to restore High Commissioners to each other's capitals at the earliest opportunity.

"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," Misri had stated.

Further, both sides resolved to revive senior and working-level mechanisms on various fronts. They also agreed to resume senior and working-level mechanisms and discussions in a host of areas related to trade, people-to-people contact and connectivity, all of them intended to bring greater momentum to the relationship.

The leaders also explored collaboration in key global sectors, including clean energy, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, food security, and critical minerals. Discussions also touched upon paused trade negotiations, with instructions to resume them soon.

--IANS

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