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In a reset, India appoints Dinesh K Patnaik next envoy to Canada; Ottawa names Christopher Cooter
Dinesh Patnaik, a 1990 batch IFS officer, is expected to take up the assignment in Ottawa shortly, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.
India and Canada on Thursday named senior diplomats Dinesh K Patnaik and Christopher Cooter as their respective high commissioners in each other’s capitals, filling positions that were vacant for the past 10 months or more and marking another step in normalising bilateral ties after a prolonged row over the killing of a Khalistani separatist.
Patnaik, a 1990 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service and one of the country’s most senior diplomats, is expected to take up the assignment in Ottawa shortly, the external affairs ministry said in a statement. He is currently serving as the Indian ambassador to Spain.
Canada’s foreign minister Anita Anand said Cooter will be the high commissioner to India, and the foreign ministry said this would be an “important step towards restoring necessary diplomatic services to citizens and businesses in both countries”.
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India-Canada relations cratered when former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau alleged in September 2023 that Indian government agents were linked to the murder of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in the town of Surrey that year. India dismissed the charge as “absurd” and both sides paused talks on a trade deal, downgraded diplomatic relations and expelled dozens of each other’s diplomats.
New Delhi withdrew its previous envoy to Ottawa, Sanjay Verma, along with five other officials last October when Canadian authorities sought to question them in relation to the murder of Nijjar. In retaliation, India expelled six Canadian diplomats, including then acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler.
Canada has not had an envoy in New Delhi since last summer, when former high commissioner Cameron MacKay left the post.
The Canadian side has a norm of finalising the agrément, or the formal agreement whereby a state receives a foreign country’s envoy, in 120 days, though it is understood that the process was accelerated in the case of Patnaik.
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HT first reported in March that Patnaik and Cooter were tipped for the two ambassadorial positions. Patnaik has more than 30 years of experience in assignments within India and abroad and served as deputy high commissioner to the UK in 2016-2018, a position that required handling the Khalistan issue within the Indian diaspora, as is the case with Canada.
He has served in India’s missions in Geneva, Dhaka, Beijing and Vienna, and in the external affairs ministry’s divisions focusing on Africa, Europe (West), the UN and external publicity.
Cooter, with 35 years of diplomatic experience, most recently served as Canada’s chargé d'affaires to Israel and as high commissioner to South Africa. He served as first secretary in the Canadian mission in New Delhi from 1998 to 2000.
Patnaik’s appointment was announced a little more than a month after India and Canada held their first talks in New Delhi on taking forward the process of rebuilding ties and putting in place measures to address concerns of both sides. Canada’s assistant deputy minister (Indo-Pacific) Weldon Epp travelled to New Delhi for talks with senior Indian officials as a follow-up to the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney, on the margins of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis in June.
The two PMs had agreed on several steps to reset the bilateral relationship following the prolonged row over the killing of Nijjar, including the posting of high commissioners.
The Indian side continues to have concerns about Canada-based Khalistani elements and their involvement in a range of criminal activities, the people cited above said. The Canadian side has concerns about the activities of Indian criminal gangs and is keen to see an increase in the number of Canadian diplomats in India, which was significantly reduced during the spat, they said.
“The appointment of a new high commissioner reflects Canada’s step-by-step approach to deepening diplomatic engagement and advancing bilateral cooperation with India. This appointment is an important development toward restoring services for Canadians while strengthening the bilateral relationship to support Canada’s economy,” Anand said.
