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The Print
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Jaishankar speaks to Canadian counterpart Anita Anand as New Delhi & Ottawa seek to normalise ties
Carney's victory in the Canadian general election late last month set the ball rolling for the normalisation of ties between the two countries, with India likely to appoint a High Commissioner to Canada within the next few weeks, as reported by ThePrint. However, it is unclear whether the staffing strength for the respective High Commissions, which was reduced in 2023, would be increased. 'Discussed the prospects of India-Canada ties,' read Jaishankar's post on social media platform X after the call. It is the first call between the Indian external affairs minister and Anand, who was appointed earlier this month, and the first ministerial-level talks between New Delhi and Ottawa since Mark Carney became Canada's prime minister. New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke with his new Canadian counterpart Anita Anand late Sunday evening, as both countries look to reset ties, with the appointment of respective High Commissioners in the offing. 'Thank you Minister @DrSJaishankar for the productive discussion today on strengthening Canada–India ties, deepening our economic cooperation, and advancing shared priorities. I look forward to continuing our work together,' Anand wrote on X. Apart from appointing a new high commissioner, India is also likely to appoint senior officials to its consulate in Toronto. India-Canada ties had hit a nadir, when former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau linked Indian officials to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian-designated terrorist, outside a gurdwara in British Columbia in June 2023. Trudeau, however, resigned in January this year, paving the way for Carney to become the leader of the Liberal Party. Carney, a former central bank governor, scripted history, leading the party to win the largest number of seats in the Canadian House of Commons, just shy of a majority. At the start of this year, the Liberal Party was trailing the opposition Conservative Party by around 20 percentage points in opinion polls. The new Canadian prime minister is also set to host the G7 leaders' summit from 15 June to 17 June, in what would be his first major test of multilateral diplomacy. He has been focussed on dealing with US President Donald J. Trump in the last few weeks. Trump has taken aim over Canada's exports to the US, since assuming the American presidency in January. India is not a member of the G7. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited to the last three summits, hosted by Germany, Japan and Italy respectively. He had also attended the 2019 G7 summit held in France. The chair of the G7 invites nations as a part of its outreach summits. While Germany, Japan and Italy are close partners of India, it is unclear yet whether Ottawa has invited Modi for this year's summit. Over the last half-decade, ties between the two countries have cratered. One of the earliest signs of tensions came after Trudeau attempted to insert himself into the conversation surrounding the 2020 farmers' protests in India. In September 2023 on the floor of the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau accused Indian officials of being linked to the killing of Nijjar. Ottawa then went a step further expelling an Indian diplomat, which led to New Delhi expelling a Canadian diplomat. By October, Canada's staff strength at its missions across India had been reduced, with 41 diplomats being asked to leave the country by New Delhi. While ties remained tense, around a year later, in October 2024, Canada requested India to waive diplomatic immunity for six of its diplomats, including the then Indian High Commissioner to Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma. India withdrew the diplomats, and expelled six Canadian diplomats, including Acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler. Canada currently has roughly 16 diplomats in India, down from over 60 a couple of years earlier. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Jaishankar breaks silence on Trump's India-Pak truce claim—'made one thing clear to US…'
Gulf Insider
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Insider
Bangladesh's Increasing Alignment With China And Pakistan Could Imperil India's Great Power plans
Bangladeshi Major General (retired) A.L.M. Fazlur Rahman, who serves as chair of the National Independent Commission of Inquiry investigating the 2009 Bangladesh Rifles massacre, posted on Facebook that Bangladesh should occupy India's Northeastern States if India goes to war with Pakistan. He later explained that preparing for this scenario might deter India, which could in turn prevent Pakistan's possible defeat, thus averting the existential threat that India would then pose to Bangladesh. The incumbent government, which came to power after last summer's US-backed regime change, distanced itself from his post but the damage to bilateral trust was done. Rahman's words followed interim Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus' scandalous comments about India's Northeastern States during a trip to China earlier this year. They were analyzed here at the time as a veiled threat to once again host Indian-designated terrorist-separatist groups if India doesn't make concessions to Bangladesh. This year's two territorial controversies thus far were preceded by Yunus' special assistant Mahfuj Alam sharing a provocative map on X in late December that made claims to surrounding Indian states, with these sequential developments altogether ringing alarm bells in Delhi about Dhaka's intentions. Although each were 'plausibly deniable' in that no official territorial claims were made, the trend is unmistakable, and it's that the new Bangladeshi authorities are weaponizing fears of this scenario. From their ultra-nationalist perspective, this is a pragmatic means to rebalance what they consider to be Bangladesh's lopsided relations with much larger India, but it risks backfiring by heightening Delhi's threat perceptions with all that entails. In the current context of India signaling that it might launch at least one surgical strike against Pakistan in retaliation for last month's Pahalgam terrorist attack, Indian military planners can't confidently rule out that Pakistan might coordinate its response with Bangladesh. To make matters worse, Rahman also wrote in his two posts that Bangladesh 'needs to start discussing a joint military system with China', which lays claim to India's Northeastern State of Arunachal Pradesh. Seeing as how there's always the possibility that another Indo-Pak war could lead to China intervening on Pakistan's side, which Indian military planners call the two-front war scenario, this latest twist could lead to a three-front war as the incumbent Bangladeshi government aligns closer with both against India. India already felt that it was becoming encircled by China over the past decade, but this might soon evolve into a siege mentality if ties with Bangladesh continue to worsen due to its officials' rhetoric. The new regional security system that's taking shape as Bangladesh de facto incorporates itself into the Sino-Pak nexus could decisively shift the balance of power against India. In response, India might intensify the military dimension of its strategic partnership with the US, albeit more on the US' terms than before. India cherishes its strategic autonomy, which is why it's thus far declined to participate in the US' multilateral containment of China, but that could change if the US informally makes more military-strategic support of India depend on this. Amidst its increasing encirclement that might soon evolve into a siege mentality as explained, India might feel that it has no choice but to concede to this so as to avoid being coerced into concessions by China, either scenario of which could imperil its Great Power plans.
