E-Paper
Jaishankar invited to G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Canada next month
India and Canada have reset their relations since Mark Carney, who met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on the margins of the G7 summit, assumed charge
External affairs minister S Jaishankar has been invited for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the intergovernmental forum G7 in the scenic Niagara region of the province of Ontario next month amid a reset in the bilateral ties, people aware of the matter said.
The people said foreign ministers of the other outreach countries, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, and Ukraine, who attended the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Canada’s Kananaskis in June, are also among the invitees.
India and Canada have reset their relations since Mark Carney, who met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on the margins of the G7 summit, assumed charge as the prime minister in March. Jaishankar accompanied Modi on that visit, but he did not have a formal bilateral meeting with his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand.
As the host of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, Anand is expected to hold bilateral talks with the invitees. Jaishankar visited Ottawa and Toronto in December 2019 and met with François-Philippe Champagne, his counterpart at the time.
India and Canada agreed to resume trade and investment talks during Anand’s visit to India this month. The two sides unveiled a road map to reset their relations as Anand met Modi, Jaishankar, and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.
Anand and Jaishankar’s talks were a follow-up to the Modi-Carney meeting in June, when the two sides agreed to restore stability to bilateral ties. On September 29, Anand met Jaishankar on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
India has invited Carney for the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February. Carney’s office has not yet confirmed his participation. New Delhi is hoping to have him over for a visit by April next year.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation in September 2023 that Indian government agents were linked to the killing of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar triggered a protracted diplomatic spat between India and Canada. India dismissed the charge as “absurd”.
