A former Canadian diplomat is calling on the incoming Canadian government to make re-engagement with India a priority. David McKinnon, a senior fellow at the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, underscored the need to enhance relations with India, the world’s fifth-largest economy today.
McKinnon, who has been the High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives between 2017 and 2022 and Minister-Counsellor at Canada’s High Commission in New Delhi between 2004 and 2009, contended that the new government has to ‘make the case for Canada to re-engage effectively and pragmatically with India’. He pointed out that India’s increasing global relevance cannot be overlooked by anyone, remarking, “India is far too important to our economic and security future to ignore.
He noted India’s economy has now doubled Canada’s and underlined the requirement for action premised on ‘understanding and co-operation where possible’, along with a readiness for ‘honest, respectful, and constructive dialogue about our differences’.
McKinnon mentioned the tense bilateral relationship between the two nations after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2023 statement that implied the possible involvement of Indian agents in the murder of pro-Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia. McKinnon warned, though, that this episode, however grave, should not define the entirety of our policy.
He called on Ottawa to keep its eyes on ‘the larger picture: an unstable, fast-changing world order in which economic and security alliances are more vital than ever’, and not to get in the way unnecessarily as investigations and legal processes play out. McKinnon also referred to a similar case in the United States where India is investigating a plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Pannun, a Sikh for Justice member.
McKinnon was critical of Canada’s current strategy towards India, saying that the country’s vision of India has been narrow, and that the relationship has tended to be driven by domestic politics instead of strategic engagement. He urged a ‘more thoughtful and strategic approach’, pointing out that as worries about China’s assertiveness and an untrustworthy U.S. increase, the question is not whether Canada requires a strategic relationship with India, but how to build it.
