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India agreed to readmit a full cohort of Canadian diplomats, two years after New Delhi forced Ottawa to send most of its envoys home, the foreign minister. Anita Anand he said on Tuesday.
Anand is in India where met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and senior government officials. She was invited to be the first cabinet minister to visit the country, after two years of strained diplomatic relations.
She said the speed at which the Canadian mission in India returns to full strength could help determine whether the two countries relaunch trade negotiations.
“The approach we are following is a step-by-step approach, to be prudent along the way,” Anand told reporters in a video conference from Mumbai.
During his visit, the two countries signed a declaration indicating the areas in which they want to cooperate, including trade and artificial intelligence.
Canada and India expelled each other’s top diplomats last fall after the RCMP accused New Delhi of playing a role in a network of violence in Canada linked to homicides and extortion.
In September 2023, the The Liberal government has accused New Delhi of playing a role in the killing of a Sikh activist near Vancouver earlier that year.
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Anand said the restoration of diplomatic relations with India will happen only gradually, starting with the restoration of Canada’s full cohort of diplomats.
Canada withdrew most of its diplomatic presence from India in October 2023 after New Delhi threatened to strip the diplomatic immunity of 41 diplomats and their 42 dependents.
Its diplomatic cohort in India has been gradually restored since then, with both countries appointing new high commissioners in August. Global Affairs Canada did not immediately respond when asked how many Canadian diplomats are now accredited to India.
Anand said he raised the issue of restoring Canada’s diplomatic cohort with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
“We both agreed that we would train staff as before, to serve our respective populations,” he said.
“We want to make sure that they have the resources to serve the population that wants to get visas and that wants to travel between the two countries.”
Anand said Ottawa needs to see its diplomatic presence restored before considering a trade mission or reviving talks on a potential trade deal, which have ebbed and flowed since 2010.
Anand said Canada will at all times stand up for the safety of Canadians. Both countries agreed to negotiate behind closed doors on security.
Canadian officials have said those talks help address concerns about transnational repression without allowing those issues to dominate the relationship.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada said Monday it is “deeply concerned” that the joint statement offers “no assurances of stopping foreign interference or transnational repression.”
Anand also met Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who said he had a “productive discussion” last Saturday with Canada’s Commerce Minister Maninder Sidhu.
Sidhu said the two countries can collaborate on clean technologies, agriculture and critical minerals, while Goyal said trade and investment “must be based on the principles of mutual respect, trust and balance”.
Sidhu’s briefing paper, prepared by Global Affairs Canada in May, says India has contributed to problems in the global trade order on which Canada depends, particularly the rules outlined by the World Trade Organization.
“High-stakes negotiations, such as agriculture, have been stalled for too long. A handful of obstructionist members, led by India, routinely block the outcomes negotiated and desired by the majority of members,” the folder reads.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
