Diplomatic reset: Canada says India no longer linked to violent crimes ahead of Carney visit

Canada has said it now believes India is no longer linked to violent crimes on its soil, marking a significant shift in its position ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first official visit to India.

The statement, made by senior Canadian officials during a media briefing and reported by the Toronto Star, comes just days before Carney travels to Mumbai and New Delhi for high-level meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We have a very robust diplomatic engagement, including between national security advisers, and I think we can say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing,” one unnamed official said, indicating that Ottawa does not see ongoing foreign interference or violent activity tied to India at present.

Carney’s visit from February 27 to March 2 is being framed as an effort to strengthen bilateral ties and pursue what Canadian officials describe as a more “pragmatic” foreign policy. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the trip comes at an important juncture in the normalisation of relations between the two countries.

Relations deteriorated sharply after the June 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in British Columbia. Months later, then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “credible” evidence linking agents of the Indian government to the killing — an allegation New Delhi strongly denied. The dispute led to diplomatic expulsions and a prolonged standoff. In 2024, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police further alleged links between Indian agents and violent crime in Canada, including threats and homicides.

However, officials briefing reporters this week suggested those earlier concerns are no longer seen as ongoing. “I really don’t think we’d be taking this trip if we thought these kinds of activities were continuing,” a senior official said.

Carney’s visit will begin in Mumbai, where he is scheduled to meet Indian and Canadian CEOs, financial experts, innovators, educators and representatives of Canadian pension funds operating in India. He will then travel to New Delhi for delegation-level talks with Modi at Hyderabad House on March 2. The two leaders are also set to attend the India-Canada CEOs Forum.

The discussions are expected to review progress under the India-Canada Strategic Partnership, building on earlier meetings between the leaders in Kananaskis in June 2025 and Johannesburg in November 2025. Key areas on the agenda include trade and investment, energy, critical minerals, agriculture, education, research and innovation, as well as people-to-people ties. Regional and global developments are also likely to feature prominently.

India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa, Dinesh Patnaik, told the Toronto Star that disagreements should be handled through dialogue rather than damaging the broader relationship.

- with inputs from ANI