For two years, the India-Canada relationship has mostly been a story about what was not happening. No real dialogue. Expelled diplomats. A chill that quietly seeped into trade, visas, and student flows. This week in New Delhi came the latest sign that the thaw is real: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval sat down with David Morrison, the Canadian prime minister’s senior diplomatic and international affairs adviser, for another round of India-Canada security talks.
The official readout was dry, as these things always are. The signal was not.
What was on the table
According to the readout, the two sides reviewed progress in bilateral security and law enforcement cooperation and agreed to identify additional areas for practical cooperation. Translation: keep the police-to-police channels open and find new ones.
This builds on the February round, when India and Canada agreed on a roadmap on national security issues and decided to appoint security and law enforcement liaison officers so information on drug flows and transnational organised criminal networks could be shared faster.
New Delhi has also flagged its concerns about pro-Khalistani elements operating from Canadian territory and wants concrete steps, not just statements. The talks stayed focused on operational coordination rather than relitigating the political accusations that blew the relationship up in the first place. That is deliberate. Both sides have learned that the politics can wait; the policing cannot.
Why these India-Canada security talks matter
Some context, because the backstory is doing a lot of work here. Ties cratered after Canada’s 2023 allegation linking Indian agents to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In October 2024 came the reciprocal expulsions: India expelled 5 Canadian diplomats and recalled its own officials. High commissioners were only re-posted after the April 2025 election brought Mark Carney to power in Ottawa.
Since then, the repair job has been steady if quiet. Doval met his Canadian counterpart Nathalie G. Drouin in New Delhi on September 18, with the MEA talking about rebuilding trust. Morrison’s visit is the next layer: security first, because that is where the trust broke.
And it is not happening in a vacuum. Morrison landed in Delhi in the middle of the fifth round of talks for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Canadian foreign minister Anita Anand visits India later this month. There is talk of a possible Modi visit to Ottawa in December. Both sides want a trade deal on the table by the end of 2026, and there is real money at stake: bilateral trade was worth $13.6 billion in 2025.
What to watch next
Three things. First, whether the security cooperation produces anything visible. Dialogues are easy; acting on extradition requests and cracking down on extremist fundraising is the actual test, and it is the one New Delhi will be grading. Second, Anita Anand’s visit later this month, which will show whether the political layer is moving at the same speed as the security one. Third, the December question: if Modi does go to Ottawa, this whole reset gets a very public stamp.
One small editorial aside: resets like this rarely make noise, which is exactly why they matter. The loud stories this week were elsewhere. Delhi condemned the Strait of Hormuz tanker attack that injured 11 Indians, a reminder that India’s security establishment is juggling more than one front at a time. And back home, the capital saw opposition leaders detained during the march to the Election Commission. The Canada file is the quiet one. Quiet, done right, is how relationships get rebuilt.