India’s new envoy to Canada rejected Foreign Minister Anita Anand‘s declare that New Delhi has agreed to revive Canada’s full complement of diplomats.
Indian High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik stated Ottawa should first resolve delays in accrediting his diplomatic workers in Canada.
“It’s a reciprocal belief,” Patnaik advised The Canadian Press in an interview final Thursday. “Trust needs to be constructed up on either side.”
His feedback come because the Carney authorities pursues a reset of its relations with India — two years after Ottawa accused New Delhi of taking part in a task in assassinating a Sikh activist close to Vancouver, and one 12 months after the RCMP accused the Indian authorities of involvement in homicides and acts of extortion and coercion in Canada.
Ottawa eliminated most of its diplomats from India in October 2023 after New Delhi threatened to strip diplomatic immunity from 41 Canadian officers and their 42 dependants. Along with diplomats, Ottawa had specialists in fields like defence and agriculture working in India on the time.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand visited India earlier this month and each international locations launched a joint assertion pledging a stronger partnership.
Anand advised reporters on the finish of her go to that New Delhi would enable for the return of Canada’s full cohort of diplomats — although that wasn’t talked about within the joint assertion. She stated Ottawa wouldn’t think about reopening commerce talks till India takes this step.
“We each agreed that we’d workers up as we had been earlier than, with a view to service our respective populations,” she stated on Oct. 14.
Get day by day National information
Get the day’s prime information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
Patnaik stated India has by no means agreed to permit Ottawa to totally workers up.
“We have agreed to a sure motion ahead, in beginning to get the variety of individuals obligatory for diplomatic missions to perform successfully,” he stated in an Oct. 16 interview.
“We wish to guarantee that it’s simple for every of our individuals to get visas, to return and performance as diplomats. Numbers aren’t vital. It’s the benefit of doing issues which is extra vital.”
Patnaik stated that hinges on India with the ability to deliver specialists to Canada on diplomatic passports. He claims that course of is taking far too lengthy for specialists in fields like vitality and agriculture.
“For a few of our workers, it takes about two to a few months. (But) after six months, we simply needed to cancel the workers coming right here as a result of they couldn’t get a visa,” he stated.
Global Affairs Canada is refusing to say what number of diplomats Canada at present has on the bottom in India.
Patnaik appeared to hyperlink accreditation of Canadian diplomats to the visa points his staffers are dealing with.
“When it’s important to take care of one other nation, it’s give-and-take. It can’t be that, ‘I’ve the system, it’s important to take care of it however I want you to make your system simpler for us’. It doesn’t work like that,” he stated.
When requested to answer Patnaik’s feedback, Global Affairs cited the joint assertion each international locations launched final week — which makes no point out of Canada re-establishing its diplomatic footprint.
Instead, the assertion stated each international locations’ diplomatic missions “will strengthen institutional capability by progressively deploying experience within the financial, political, defence, and expertise domains.”
The Canadian Press requested Anand about Patnaik’s feedback. She stated her understanding was based mostly on what her Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, stated throughout her go to.
“Look, my dialogue is with Minister Jaishankar. My dialogue and factors are contained within the joint assertion,” she stated Monday.
In an announcement despatched to The Canadian Press, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada stated foreigners travelling right here on diplomatic assignments require one kind of visa, whereas diplomats who’re coming to Canada for a non-diplomatic objective, would wish a journey visa if they’re from a rustic that requires one.
For each functions, international diplomatic personnel are exempt from Ottawa’s ordinary visa charges and might apply for visas by way of a web-based system or by visiting a consulate, both in individual or by way of a consultant.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
