Want Private Talks With India To Resolve Diplomatic Dispute: Canada
Mumbai: After a report claimed that New Delhi asked Ottawa to withdraw 41 diplomats by October 10, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said Canada wants private talks with India to resolve the diplomatic dispute.
According to the Financial Times, India has informed Canada that the diplomats must be returned by October 10. When asked if the claim was true, neither Joly nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a response.
“We are in touch with the Indian government. Because we believe that private talks are preferable for diplomatic exchanges, we will continue to engage in them. “We take the safety of Canadian diplomats very seriously,” Joly told reporters.
The assassination in June in Canada of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen who India had designated as a “terrorist,” has caused major deterioration in relations between the two nations.
The accusation has been rejected by India as ludicrous.
India allegedly threatened to strip the diplomatic immunity of the 41 diplomats who were ordered to leave if they persisted beyond October 10 according to The Financial Times. In India, Canada has 62 diplomats.
On September 22, India stopped issuing new visas to Canadians and requested that Ottawa scale up its diplomatic representation there.
Ottawa, according to Trudeau, is not seeking to aggravate the conflict.
Separately, he told reporters, “We’re taking this extremely seriously, but we’re going to continue to engage responsibly and constructively with the government of India.”
Calls and emails to the Indian High Commission in Ottawa requesting comment received no response.
The existence of Sikh separatist organizations in Canada has irked New Delhi, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said that there was a “climate of violence” and an “atmosphere of intimidation” against Indian officials there.
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