India and Canada on Thursday appointed high commissioners to each other's capitals.
The appointments signal a resolve to fully reset the bilateral relationship 10 months after the withdrawal of 12 senior diplomats by both sides over Canada's allegations of an Indian hand in the killing of Khalistani operative Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.
In simultaneous announcements, India appointed Dinesh K. Patnaik, India's ambassador to Spain, as the high commissioner in Ottawa, and Canada picked another career diplomat with a stint in India between 1998 and 2000, Christopher Cooter, to head its mission in New Delhi.
The appointments were made over two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney decided on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June to take calibrated steps to restore stability to the bilateral relationship. The first step, which was agreed on, was to restore high commissioners at an early date. Other diplomatic steps are to follow.
India withdrew its previous high commissioner, Sanjay Kumar Verma, after Canada named him, other diplomats and officials at the Indian high commission as "persons of interest" in the Nijjar murder investigation. India summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires in turn. Within hours, both sides announced they had expelled six diplomats each, including the high commissioner and the CDA. Canada was then headed by the CDA, as the high commissioner had returned after his stint.