India, Aug. 28 -- 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 Khalistani separatist.

Patnaik, a 1990 batch officer 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 in a statement. He is currently serving as the Indian ambassador to Spain.

Canada's foreign minister Anita Anand said Cooter will be the high commissioner to India, and the foreign mi...