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Doval to visit Canada next month for strategic cooperation talks
India's NSA Ajit Doval will visit Canada next month to enhance strategic cooperation amid ongoing security dialogues, addressing mutual concerns.
Less than six months since his Canadian counterpart visited New Delhi, India’s National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is expected to travel to Ottawa early next month to take forward the process of ensuring strategic cooperation between the two countries at the highest level as they rebuild ties.
It’s part of the ongoing Security and Law Enforcement Dialogue already in progress between the two countries. His visit will come a month before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney makes his maiden bilateral trip to India.
Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Advisor (NSIA) Nathalie G Drouin visited New Delhi in September and held discussions with Doval.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik said, “Following the visit of NSIA to India, this is part of the process to discuss security, public safety and law and order issues in both countries. The objective is to ensure safety and secure of citizens in each other’s countries. It’s part of a process to have strategic cooperation at the highest level to ensure that the territory of each country is not misused by terrorist organisations, criminal gangs and other negative elements against the other country.”
The irritants between the two sides includes India’s concern over pro-Khalistan extremists using Canadian territory to export separatism to Punjab. Canada, meanwhile, is concerned over violence in its territory.
On her return to Ottawa, Drouin told reporters, “It was a productive meeting where we established a channel of communication to talk about respective concerns.”
“We have a common understanding and common goal here. They want us to be very clear in terms of One India and the respect of the integrity of their territory and what we want is safer streets in Canada,” she added.
The dialogue has two verticals, with one involving the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Both agencies have ongoing virtual discussions, while RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme had accompanied Drouin on her India visit and later underscored the need for the two countries to “work together.”
A senior Indian official said the dialogue encompassed a “broad agenda” which included information on gangs, terrorist links, movements of weapons and drugs, among other matters.
While there is “coordination” and agencies are looking at “interoperability”, the focus is on rebuilding trust through regular conversations. That trust had cratered after then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on September 18, 2023, that there were “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of pro-Khalistan figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar three months earlier in Surrey, British Columbia. India had described the accusations as “absurd” and “motivated.”
Canadian law enforcement remains concerned over the surge in violent incidents linked to extortion in recent times, often attributed to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang.
