CSIS Director to Attend Intelligence Chiefs Conclave in India Amid Signs of Possible Diplomatic Thaw

OTTAWA — CSIS Director Daniel Rogers will attend an intelligence conclave chaired by India's spy chief in the first publicly-acknowledged gathering of top security officials from both countries since a tense October meeting that led to diplomatic expulsions.

The meeting is seen as a positive signal that Canada wants to begin mending its relationship with India, according to Indo-Pacific and geopolitics specialist Jonathan Berkshire Miller. "Restoring the diplomacy at the intelligence level, I think, is a certain important first step," said the senior fellow at the MacDonald-Laurier Institute.

India is of renewed interest as a potential trading partner as Canada looks to step away from the U.S. after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods all while threatening to annex his northern neighbour. India is a prime, albeit complex, market for Canada, Berkshire Miller said.

"We can't really have a successful diversification program with bad relationships with China, bad relationship with the U.S., and obviously, an understandably bad relationship with Russia," he said. "I think the geopolitical scene more broadly shows an urgency for us to sort of find a way to engage with India."

"We're in a land of bad options. And when you're in a land of bad options, you choose some of the options that are less worse than the others," he added.

But he and other Canadian envoys warned Indian officials during a visit last month that it will be a slow and cautious process by Canada. "The restoring of high commissioners I think is a great first step, and I think that probably will happen," he said. But Canada can't replace the dozens of diplomats India has expelled over the years with a flick of a switch and the Nijjar case is likely to last for years in court.

"This could take some time," he noted.

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