Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand announced four new diplomatic appointments, including a new Consul General in Mumbai, with no word yet about the appointment of a new High Commissioner to India.
It is pertinent to mention that when the Prime Ministers of India, Narendra Modi, and Canada, Mark Carney, met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Alberta, they announced that new High Commissioners would be appointed in each other’s countries soon.
Though 20-odd diplomatic appointments were made by the new Carney government a couple of weeks ago, India did not figure on that list.
India and Canada had shrunk their diplomatic corps after a bitter spat last year, accusing each other of political interference. The incumbent High Commissioners were either changed or recalled. As a sequel to the diplomatic spat, stopgap arrangements were made.
Hope was raised for the restoration of bonhomie between the two nations after the two Prime Ministers met in Alberta, and there were some good exchanges through telephonic conversations between the Foreign Ministers and the Prime Ministers after the Alberta meeting.
Anita Anand announced four new diplomatic appointments. Jeff David will be the new Consul General of Canada in Mumbai. He replaces Diedrah Kelly.
Louis-Martin Aumais will become Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He will replace Tarik Khan.
Ghislain Robichaud will become Consul General in Sydney (Australia). Robichaud will replace André-François Giroux, who is currently serving as Ambassador to the Republic of Haiti.
Allison Stewart will become Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the State of Libya. She will replace Isabelle Savard.
The new Consul General in Mumbai, Jeff David (HBA, Ivey Business School, Western University, 2002), joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2003.
At Headquarters, he served as the Senior Adviser to the Assistant Deputy Minister of the International Platform Branch, the Director of Global Consular Case Management, the Director of Consular Strategy, and the Senior Departmental Adviser in the Office of the Minister of International Trade. Overseas, he has served once in Afghanistan and three times in China: the last time there, he was the Consul General in Chongqing (2017 to 2021).
Most recently, he was a Special Adviser in the Office of the Deputy Minister for International Trade.
