Ambassador Ajay Bisaria—former Indian High Commissioner to Canada (2020–2022) and a veteran diplomat with 35 years in the Indian Foreign Service—brings both experience and perspective to a moment of reset in India-Canada relations. Over the course of his career, he has served as India’s envoy to Pakistan, Poland, and Lithuania, and played key roles in shaping India’s economic and security diplomacy—both in the region and beyond. A former aide to PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he now works at the intersection of geopolitics, international business, and public policy. In this interview, he draws on years of frontline diplomacy to reflect on trust, tension, and the potential for renewal at the 2025 G7 Summit.
Mahrukh Chaudhry: Before PM Modi’s invitation to the 2025 G7 Summit, where did India-Canada ties actually stand? Had the relationship remained frozen since the Nijjar controversy, or was there already some groundwork underway for a reset?
Amb. Ajay Bisaria: Even before the G7 invitation, both sides had quietly begun laying the groundwork to repair ties. The relationship had been strained for about 18 months—primarily due to the Nijjar controversy and how PM Trudeau escalated it politically, instead of handling it through security cooperation.
By the time of the 2025 Canadian election, there was already recognition on both sides that ties needed to be reset. Mark Carney’s arrival as Prime Minister offered a natural political opening. Quiet diplomacy and Track II conversations were also underway to prepare for re-engagement. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, for instance, was in touch with his then-counterpart Melanie Joly, and later with Canada’s current Foreign Minister Anita Anand. These interactions reflected a clear appetite on both sides to find a way forward.
The G7 summit simply accelerated that trajectory, offering a timely forum for the two leaders to meet. The goal is to stabilise the relationship over the course of this year, and in the next, to potentially build a relationship even stronger than before the crisis.
Multilateral settings are a useful space for sensitive diplomatic engagements. They allow leaders to meet informally on the sidelines outside the spotlight of formal bilaterals. This format offers a ‘diplomatic cover’ to discuss issues that may be politically charged at home
Mahrukh Chaudhry: The G7 invitation to PM Modi came later than expected and was reportedly linked to Canadian conditions related to law enforcement cooperation. Do you see this delay as a sign of cautious re-engagement, or does it reflect a deeper ambivalence in how the West engages with India?
Amb. Ajay Bisaria: Too much is being read into the timing of the invitation. It likely reflected Canada’s newly formed government needing time to settle in—not any preconditions. The claim that it was contingent on law enforcement cooperation doesn’t reflect how diplomacy functions, though security discussions were indeed taking place behind the scenes between the two sides.
Both India and Canada have expressed deep security concerns. Canada alleged Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar for which India issued a firm denial of any official involvement. But India has also flagged its own concerns—particularly about how extremist elements and criminal networks operating from Canadian soil have targeted Indian diplomats and incited violence in India. So, this isn’t a one-sided issue.
The conversations should shift from political grandstanding to professional channels. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) already have a dedicated channel of communication—a valuable existing mechanism. There are ongoing discussions between the two countries’ National Security Advisors (NSA) and deputy NSAs. These provide structured platforms for resolving such matters.
This approach mirrors how India handled a comparable challenge with the U.S. There too, we faced an arguably more serious security-related disagreement involving court indictments. Yet, it was resolved without turning into a major diplomatic rupture through mature, behind-the-scenes coordination led by security professionals, including NSAs. While India’s relationship with the U.S. is fundamentally stronger or more institutionalised, India and Canada did sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2015, during PM Modi’s visit to Canada, that still exists. What’s needed now is the political will to realise its full potential.
The present crisis, in many ways, has already run its course. The Nijjar case is now before a Canadian court. With the right engagement, that process can address the issue—and broader concerns too. The goal should be to rebuild political ties while letting security agencies handle the irritants, as was done with the U.S.
