India-Canada ties likely to get boost after appointment of Anita Anand as foreign minister: Experts

Vina Nadjibulla, vice-president, research and strategy with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Cabana, was cautiously optimistic about the future of the relationship, as she said there is a “political opening for a reset” and Anand’s appointment “further consolidates that opening”.

She stressed the direction will be decided by Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney has indicated he wants to repair the relationship. In the last week of April, during the last weekend campaigning for the Federal election.

Anand made a similar remark while seeking re-election from her riding (constituency) of Oakville East.

Nadjibulla described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s congratulatory message to Carney on April 29, after the ruling Liberal Party was certain to form the government, as a “good sign”.

Meanwhile, the National Alliance of Indo-Canadians expressed the hope that with Anand “heading foreign affairs”, there will be “better Canada-India relations.”

In fact, according to people familiar with developments at the time, Anand had been interested in playing a central role in strengthening ties with India while she was Minister of National Defence, and was expected to travel to New Delhi in the spring of 2023 but that trip didn’t take place and by July she had moved by then PM Justin Trudeau to the post of President of the Treasury Board.