Admiral is India’s next envoy to Canada after original pick torpedoed by PM

Former Indian Navy chief Adm. Nirmal Verma (left), seen here with U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, is India’s new envoy to Canada. Prakash Singh/AFP

Former Indian Navy chief Adm. Nirmal Verma has emerged from a diplomatic row to be India’s next High Commissioner to Canada, sources say.

Once Canada’s foreign ministry signs off on Verma’s appointment, he would depart for Ottawa immediately, sources say, as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is due to visit India in the fall.

Verma was handpicked by Indian PM Manmohan Singh, who rejected the choice of his foreign minister, S.M. Krishna. Krishna had recommended Basant Gupta, currently additional secretary in charge of passports in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

Indian media reported last week that external affairs employees are up in arms against the decision. Canada is considered an important diplomatic outpost and the choice of an “outsider” has ruffled quite a few feathers.

“This is an active post and it is unprecedented that an important station like Canada is being given to a naval officer who has no experience in diplomacy,” a source said, according to one report.

Sources said Verma’s skills in maritime diplomacy could have been utilized well in a country that is important for India’s maritime interests. But in Canada, where issues like security, diaspora and political matters will dominate the envoy’s agenda, the PM’s choice may be a poor fit, they asserted.

Yesterday, India’s Mail Today said sources are officially playing down the incident and claim that the matter was decided after consultation with Krishna.

This is not the first time that a former naval chief’s nomination as an envoy had kicked up a storm. Three years ago, Adm. Sureesh Mehta was appointed ambassador to New Zealand just weeks after he retired as navy chief. Initially, the demand was to send Mehta to Mauritius or Vietnam. The Ministry of External Affairs had vociferously protested then, too.

There is no high commissioner in place in Ottawa at the moment. The last envoy, Shashishekhar M Gavai, retired from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) at the end of August 2012, as did Verma from the Indian Navy.

Verma was last in Canada in May at the invitation of the Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk. He has played a key role in the modernization of the Indian Navy since he was Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Policy & Plans) and also in naval diplomacy.

After the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, PM Singh called for files on the navy’s modernization plans and in January 2009, most of them were cleared in one shot.

Despite the delays in the construction and commissioning of ships – the indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC) at Cochin and some others at Mazagon Dock Ltd. and elsewhere – the navy is on a steady path to acquire at least five ships every year for the next 10 years, a commendable pace by any standard.

Verma is set to be briefed by officials of the ministry and to go through classified and unclassified files on India-Canada relations. Canada is important for India because of its gas and nuclear technology and resources, for which agreements are in place.

Tags: Canada, foreign relations, India