India, April 27 -- A retired Canadian diplomat, who once served in New Delhi, has said that the next government in Ottawa must make the case to re-engage with India.

David McKinnon, senior fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, served as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives from 2017 to 2022 and before that as Minister-Counsellor at Canada's High Commission in New Delhi from 2004 to 2009.

In a dispatch for the Foundation, he argued "whoever forms the Canadian government after the April 28 election must make the case for Canada to re-engage - effectively and pragmatically - with India."

"India is far too important to our economic and security future to ignore," he added.

He pointed out that India was now the worl...