Prime Minister Narendra Modi not attending the G-7 meet, for whatever reasons, does not suggest the end of road towards improving relations between India and Canada. Relations are indeed strained, but there is a strong probability that these will improve once Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gets rid of the immediate diplomatic concerns with the United States, particularly punitive tariffs that Trump has imposed on Canada.
After Carney took over as the Canadian Prime Minister, there was a hope that relations between the two countries may improve after these were strained under his predecessor Justin Trudeau. Although Carney did express his resolve to build confidence with India, nothing has moved so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reluctance to attend the G-7 Summit that is to begin on June 15 in Alberta in Canada, indicates that the relationship between the two countries continues to remain cold and strained and there is no visible thaw.
Right now the two countries have reduced the level of diplomatic relations after India withdrew its High Commissioner Sanjeev Verma from Ottawa last year. Canada declared the Indian High Commissioner as a “person of interest” in the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjer. Canada also withdrew its High Commissioner in the retaliatory diplomatic action.
Canada is hosting the G-7 Summit this year. G-7 is the group of most powerful and industrialised countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Earlier, it was G-8 as Russia was also a member till 2014, but was removed in 2014 after it annexed Crimea. Normally, five more countries, which are industrially developed, are also invited for the meet. India has regularly been participating in the G-7 meetings with Prime Minister Modi having attended the last six meetings continuously.
Although it is being suggested that Canada, which is the host country this time, did not invite the Prime Minister this year, it was quite obvious that Modi was not inclined to attend the meet, given the strained relations two countries have had for about last two years. Invitation or no invitation, Modi would not have attended the meet in any case.
Indo-Canadian relations have not been the best since Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau took over as the Prime Minister of Canada in 2015. His proximity to some influential pro-Khalistan leaders in the Liberal Party, are believed to be the reason for his unfriendly approach towards India.
It was during Trudeau’s prime ministership that the radical elements in Canada got emboldened and there were repeated and frequent attacks at Indian consulates in different Canadian cities. Some temples were also ransacked. 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’. Gandhi was killed by her own Sikh bodyguards, who are now celebrated as martyrs and heroes of the community by the radicals.
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.
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But that apparently was not Trudeau’s motive. He was addressing the radical Sikh sentiments in Canada, who are very active and aggressive despite being in the clear minority. Trudeau also wanted to counter New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh, who is himself a Sikh and also panders to the radical and anti-India elements. In this competitive game of appeasement of the radicals, Trudeau ended up straining the relationship with one of the most friendly countries.
Although Carney is there for about six months now, having been re-elected in April elections, he obviously did not get enough time to work on the diplomatic relations with India.
India, in fact, cannot be his priority at this stage, when he has a more serious and more challenging job of negotiating the US tariffs at hand. In fact, Carney owes his re-election to Donald Trump’s tariffs and his aggressively hostile approach towards Canada. It is understandable as to where India will be on his priority list right now. Moreover, there is nothing serious to be sorted out between the two countries that will need urgent attention.
In absence of any effective diplomatic communication between the two countries, it was quite expected that Modi will not be visiting Canada. This fact obviously won’t be lost on the Canadian authorities and they avoided even extending an invitation to Prime Minister Modi.
At the same time not much needs to be read in this development. Once Prime Minister Carney sets his priorities right after settling the issues with the US, which undoubtedly have been thrust on him by Trump, there is all likelihood of the Indo-Canadian relations going back to normal.
To assume that just because Canada did not invite India to the G-7 summit does not mean the two countries will never seek rapprochement between themselves. They certainly will and may be sooner than most people expect. And they should. There is a large Indian diaspora settled and living in Canada. No Canadian government can afford to ignore it.
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