Canadian High Commissioner to India Christopher Cooter says Ottawa and Delhi are collaborating on security issues concerning transnational crime.
Indian and Canadian security agencies are now actively collaborating to address the issue of transnational crime networks and how they are being funded, according to Christopher Cooter, High Commissioner of Canada to India.
Speaking exclusively to StratNews Global, the Canadian envoy said, “What happened on the security front is really about rebuilding trust … Operation Hard Ball got a lot of attention a few weeks ago. But we have been working very hard on building the relationship between our security agencies, there have been reciprocal visits, they have an ongoing dialogue because it’s much broader.”
“Operation Hard Ball is really one example of how working together can produce results that are in both the Indian and Canadian interests. Of course we did it with the United States as well. That’s also an important factor,” he said.
Cooter, who assumed charge in August 2025, also said, “For certain important issues we need a third partner or another country to come into it. This was an excellent example of cooperation, and it’s the future that we’re looking at. This is where we want to go. As you know, we declared the (Lawrence) Bishnoi group a terrorist entity in Canada.”
He pointed out that India and Canada have established a financial crimes task force to trace the source of funding of criminal gangs the Lawrence Bishnoi Group and others, who are operating out of India but committing crimes in Canada and other countries.
Earlier this month, the US FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), jointly announced ‘Operation Hard Ball’ – a major enforcement crackdown on transnational organized crime syndicates active in North America and Europe, such as the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that are based in India.
Operation Hard Ball also looks at the June 2023 assassination of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which triggered a major diplomatic row between Ottawa and New Delhi, leading to both countries recalling their envoys and downsizing the respective diplomatic missions.
Sanjay Verma, who was India’s High Commissioner to Canada at that time, was declared persona non-grata (an unwelcome person) by the Canadian government in October 2024 as he was named, along with other Indian diplomats, by then Justin Trudeau administration as “persons of interest” in the Nijjar murder case.
“There is a separate judicial process in the Nijjar case and that’s within the hands of the courts and we’ll see where that one goes,” said Cooter.
India and Canada have established a financial crimes task force “because we were looking at things like where the money goes with these criminal organizations. We are working closely with counterparts in India to handle that problem.”
“But this operation was very much about the present and the future and it builds on that hard work that’s gone into reestablishing trust between the two countries on security matters,” he said.
“Nijjar case is handled by the courts and they will do what they do with it. We’ll see where that goes. I don’t know what the pace will be. What I’m saying is that what we’re looking at is all these other elements around transnational crime and victimization of the Indo-Canadian community in Canada and some of these bad actors that both the United States and Canada have pointed to,” Cooter highlighted.
He also said that India and Canada have now “adopted a policy of no surprises so that we are dealing with this in a very mature way and I think we’ll handle it from that perspective from now on.”
India-Canada CEPA
During Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s maiden visit to India in March this year, both sides had decided to conclude the talks for having the long-pending free trade agreement, officially called Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), by December 2026.
The CEPA is expected to double the bilateral trade between both countries to $50 billion by 2030.
“Both Prime Ministers are very committed to have it done this year .. We also hope that Prime Minister Modi will come to Canada this year, maybe to cap it off but we’ll see. But in any case I think when you’ve got that political will to do this it will happen. To be frank, the trade between Canada and India is well below what it should be,” said Cooter.
He added, “The trade between us, if you look at goods, is at least on the Canadian side, we export about $5 billion. It’s very, very modest. It’s about what we do with the US in two days.”
Cooter said the free trade agreement is “one important tool in a toolkit. But it’s not the only thing… we will have for example a general security of information agreement that will allow our defence industries to work together more easily.”
