NEW DELHI: India and Canada on Thursday named senior diplomats Dinesh K Patnaik and Christopher Cooter as their new high commissioners, filling posts that had remained vacant for over 10 months amid one of the most serious diplomatic crises between the two countries in recent decades.
Patnaik, a 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and currently India’s ambassador to Spain, will take up his assignment in Ottawa shortly, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand confirmed the appointment of Cooter as high commissioner to India, calling it an “important step towards restoring necessary diplomatic services to citizens and businesses in both countries.”
The appointments mark a cautious step toward normalising ties that had sharply deteriorated following allegations by then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in September 2023 that Indian government agents were involved in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia. India had dismissed the allegation as “absurd and politically motivated.”
In the aftermath, both countries halted trade negotiations, expelled diplomats, and downgraded the functioning of their missions. New Delhi withdrew its previous envoy to Ottawa, Sanjay Verma, along with five other officials after Canadian authorities sought to question them in connection with the Nijjar case. India, in turn, expelled six Canadian diplomats, including then acting high commissioner Stewart Wheeler.
Canada has not had a high commissioner in New Delhi since the departure of Cameron MacKay in the summer of 2023, leaving a significant gap in diplomatic engagement.
Though Canada follows a 120-day process to finalise the agrément—a formal diplomatic approval process—for incoming foreign envoys, in Patnaik’s case, the process was expedited, reflecting a mutual willingness to re-establish lines of communication. While the deeper political tensions remain unresolved, the restoration of high-level diplomatic representation suggests that both sides are now seeking to stabilise the relationship and move toward normalcy.