Jaishankar meets Canada’s Anita Anand on UNGA sidelines, talks about rebuilding ties
Monday’s meeting between Jaishankar and Canada’s Anita Anand comes ahead of her expected visit to India next month
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Canada’s foreign affairs minister Anita Anand in their first formal bilateral engagement since her appointment to the post in May this year.
In a post on X, Jaishankar said they had a “good meeting” and welcomed the appointment of high commissioners that had remained vacant for almost a year.
“The appointment of High Commissioners is welcome as we rebuild ties. Discussed further steps in that regard today. Look forward to welcoming FM Anand in India,” Jaishankar said after their meeting on the margins of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly in New York.
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The meeting between the two foreign ministers comes ahead of Anita Anand’s expected visit to India next month and is a step in the normalisation of bilateral relations that were hit by a diplomatic row over the killing of a Khalistani separatist two years ago.
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Anand said Canada wants to “ensure we have a bilateral relationship with significant economic powers in the Indo-Pacific.”
“We will have a conversation when I’m in India about what are the next steps in the diplomatic relationship,” she told CBC News on Sunday.
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.
The meeting in New York is part of an ongoing effort in New Delhi and Ottawa to restore ties after Mark Carney succeeded Justin Trudeau as prime minister. PM Narendra Modi met Mark Carney on the margins of the G7 Summit in Canada - the first contact between the top leadership of the two sides in more than 20 months - and agreed on a range of “calibrated and constructive” steps to restore stability to bilateral ties, including the posting of envoys to each other’s capitals.
As a first step, senior diplomats Dinesh Patnaik and Christopher Cooter have taken over as respective high commissioners.
Reacting to Monday’s meeting, Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president, research and strategy at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada said this showed there appeared to be “genuine momentum” towards rebuilding trust between the two countries. She expected Anand’s visit to take that forward, particularly in specific areas of diplomatic and trade cooperation.
