New Delhi: India is likely to appoint Odisha-born senior diplomat Dinesh K Patnaik as the new High Commissioner to Canada.
Two years after a significant diplomatic fallout, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney, during the recent G7 Summit, agreed to reinstate their High Commissioners in Delhi and Ottawa, while also exploring the resumption of trade agreement negotiations, visa services, and other bilateral discussions.
According to reports, the appointment of High Commissioners may be processed as early as July, once Canada names its nominee. New Delhi has already forwarded Patnaik’s name to Ottawa.
The 1990-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer had been the front-runner for the post since March when India was contemplating restoring high commissioner-level relations with Canada. The process for securing an formal agreement whereby a state receives a foreign country’s envoy is already underway, the HT reported, quoting sources.
Patnaik is currently India’s ambassador to Spain. He served as deputy high commissioner to the UK from 2016 to 2018, managing the Khalistan issue within the Indian diaspora, similar to challenges faced in Canada.
He was the deputy chief of mission at the Indian embassy in Austria during 2009-2012 and also represented India in Morocco and Cambodia besides being the director-general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in New Delhi. He was Additional Secretary (Indian Ocean Region) from November 2018 to July 2019 and thereafter Additional Secretary (CPV&OIA) from July 2019 to January 2020 in the Ministry of External Affairs.
He had also served in Dhaka and Beijing early in his career.
Patnaik is married to Poonam, who is an international educator. They have two daughters.
