Canadian High Commissioner to India: ‘Canada offers range of energy options to India… after 2 years of tension, working methods better known to each other’

Date Sun 14 Jun 2026 00 36 11 0000 Extracted Body It s been almost a year since India and Canada hit reset and announced their new envoys after relations plummeted in 2023 over then PM Justin Trudeau s allegation of potential involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Canada based Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar a charge that India rejected as absurd and motivated PM Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney met at the G7 leaders Summit in Kananaskis in June 2025 marking the beginning of the restoration of ties As PM Modi heads to France for the G7 leaders Summit next week where he is expected to hold talks with PM Carney Canadian High Commissioner to India Christopher Cooter sat down for a wide ranging interview to Shubhajit Roy where he talked about the transformation in ties security concerns due to Khalistan elements cooperation in energy defence uranium supply the West Asia war and the changes he observed after returning to India where he was posted from 1997 to 2000 as a diplomat Edited excerpts First PM Carney leads a government focused on pragmatic relations with other countries From the time he was first elected and came into office in March 2025 unexpected pressure came from the US on our economy For 80 odd years with the US we ve had a very advanced relationship And to have that challenged so directly I think pushed the Canadian government into looking around where we can find other reliable partners And so a real push for diversification began in early 2025 and as the PM has said India is the breakout country particularly in the Indo Pacific Second a decision was taken to move the relationship forward We had two years of trouble tension and he was determined to rectify that situation and move us forward in the relationship with India India is an extremely important country for Canada and has been for decades We ve had our ups and downs not only the last couple of years but even when I was posted here in the 1990s And I think he is committed to putting this relationship back on track And so the two Prime Ministers met The Prime Minister invited Prime Minister Modi to Kananaskis G7 summit back in June last year The two saw very much eye to eye that we both needed to go forward together And so it was agreed at that time that the two countries would appoint their two High Commissioners myself and Dinesh Patnaik to resume the relationship in September Since then when we both arrived things have gone much faster than we expected Both sides have had an accelerating commitment to an improvement in the relationship I think a lot of progress has been made in dealing with that And the main thing that has been accomplished is the establishment of trust between the relevant agencies So that really took off not long after I arrived here when a very senior delegation of our security officials led by the national security and intelligence advisor came and met the Indian counterparts and had a very frank discussion It was followed by discussions virtually between the two sides over the next few months In January NSA Ajit Doval came to Canada with a delegation And so essentially they have established a kind of a regular dialogue institutionalizing that discussion Now the outcome is they know each other better Their working methods are better known to each other the way in which we approach an issue versus the way India approaches it Very practical things but we made a lot of progress over the last eight months I think that s just going to continue as the temperature of the relationship that part of that relationship which was very tense that s moved on and I think we re now in a much better place There will be bumps in the road But we ve got mechanisms which will allow us to deal with things in a more professional manner That s within the judicial process in Canada So it s going through those stages and and that s really ... to India in the eight months or so We understand that visas have been an irritant not just that the numbers were lower or seemed to be lower but also that it s difficult and slow So one of the outcomes of all these visits is we have been told in no uncertain terms by Indians students businesses and others that we need to reform this We need to do better at visas We ve taken that on board I don t know where that stands right now back home in Ottawa but I know people are looking at that very seriously We want to make sure the experience of someone applying for a visa that they don t feel this was a painful process It should be a fair process Our defence sector at home is ramping up rapidly We ve established a defence procurement office etc so we re just working that out which will undoubtedly lead to some kind of commercial links we don t have now We do have a small defence footprint in India and we have quite a large defence industry in Canada but overlooked because it s been historically quite integrated with the ... Canada is diversifying more towards India And while having a strong relationship with China it ll be a different kind of relationship We re also democracies or members of the Commonwealth We have a large diaspora in Canada we respect China We want to have a good relationship with China The PM was just there but it will be qualitatively different with India and at the same time the relationship will also expand We have set 2030 for doubling trade But I think we can be much more ambitious than that There are obviously physical changes Cities are bigger and that kind of thing but the biggest change is actually the attitude In the 1990s you were just coming out of the license raj Your economy was still highly protectionist and closed When I arrived in 1997 there was a kind of defensive attitude as well That s gone now Now India is very open to the world You had the G20 Summit The confidence Indians have now wasn t there 26 years ago It s a very nice confidence not hubristic Actually we would like India to be more engaged in the world and take on a bigger role