India and Canada appoint new high commissioners

India and Canada on Thursday named senior diplomats Dinesh K Patnaik and Christopher Cooter as their respective high commissioners in each other's capitals, filling positions that were vacant for the past 10 months or more and marking another step in normalising bilateral ties after a prolonged row over the Killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist.

- Rezaul H Laskar and Anirudh Bhattacharyya

Patnaik, who is from the 1990 batch of the Indian Foreign Service and one of the country's most senior diplomats, is expected to take up the assignment in Ottawa shortly, the external affairs ministry said ina statement.

Canada's foreign minister Anita Anand announced Cooter will be the high commissioner to India, and the foreign ministry said this will be an “important step towards restoring necessary diplomatic services to citizens and businesses in both countries”.