Editorial: Carney’s sagacious move

Carney has taken a pragmatic approach in inviting Modi, who attended the last six summits

By personally calling and inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G-7 Summit, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a positive and sagacious step to reset the Indo-Canadian relations going through a rough patch in recent times. Carney’s victory in the national election in April, as the head of the Liberal Party, raised hopes of a thaw in the frosty bilateral relations, which nosedived during his predecessor Justin Trudeau’s regime. Carney’s positive approach towards India will definitely discourage the anti-India elements in that country, especially the pro-Khalistani groups, and send a message to them that they cannot take Canadian freedom for granted to malign India. While the Trudeau administration always turned a blind eye to all these activities purely for electoral reasons, Carney may hopefully address India’s concerns in this regard. In recent weeks, reports in a section of the media suggested that Ottawa may eventually exclude India from the summit it is hosting. In the absence of any effective diplomatic communication between the two countries, it was suggested that Modi may not visit Canada. However, Carney has taken a pragmatic approach in inviting Modi, who attended the last six summits. G-7 is the group of the most powerful and industrialised countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Normally, five more countries, which are industrially developed, are also invited to the meeting. India has regularly been participating in these meetings.

The Indo-Canadian relations came under severe strain ever since Trudeau took over as the Prime Minister in 2015. The key reason for the hostile approach towards India was his proximity to some influential pro-Khalistan leaders within and outside his Liberal Party. It was during Trudeau’s prime ministership that the radical elements in Canada got emboldened, and there were repeated and frequent attacks on Indian consulates in different Canadian cities. The radicals became so emboldened that they started displaying late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s floats with her assassins targeting her during the ‘Khalsa Parade’. India has been repeatedly flagging the growing radical and anti-India activities on Canadian soil for Canadian authorities’ attention. However, instead of taking any action, Justin Trudeau accused the Government of India of being involved in the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer. Neither Trudeau nor his successors have provided any evidence about any involvement of the Indian government in his killing. In this competitive game of appeasement of the radicals, Trudeau ended up straining the relationship with one of the friendliest countries. It is hoped that Carney would start focusing on reviving friendly ties with India once he gets rid of the immediate diplomatic concerns with the United States, particularly punitive tariffs that Trump has imposed on Canada. Right now, the two countries have reduced the level of diplomatic relations after India withdrew its High Commissioner Sanjeev Verma from Ottawa last year.

---