Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly on Tuesday said that Canada wants” private addresses with India to resolve a politic disagreement” over the payoff of Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Reuters reported.
” We’re in contact with the government of India. We take Canadian diplomats’ safety veritably seriously and we will continue to engage intimately because we suppose politic exchanges are best when they remain private,” Reuters quoted Joly as saying to journalists.
The statement by Joly comes after a report said India had asked Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats. India has told Canada that it must repudiate the diplomats by October 10. Neither Joly nor Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded when asked if the report was accurate, as per Reuters.
There’s a strain in India- Canada relations following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations regarding the Indian government’s’ implicit part’ in the fatal firing of Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Nijjar, who was a designated terrorist in India, was plugged down outside a Gurdwara, in a parking area in Canada’s Surrey, British Columbia on June 18.
Trudeau, during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, claimed his country’s public security officers had reasons to believe that” agents of the Indian government” carried out the payoff of the Canadian citizen, who also served as the chairman of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.
India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it’ absurd’ and’ motivated’. specially, Canada has yet to give any public substantiation to support the claim about the payoff of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The country has said it wants to” work constructively with India” regarding the allegations. Trudeau on Tuesday said that his country wasn’t” looking to escalate the situation with India,” adding that Ottawa wants to remain on the ground in New Delhi to help Canadians, Reuters reported.
” Canada isn’t looking to escalate the situation with India, will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there,” Reuters quoted Trudeau as saying.
Trudeau had said last week that Canada is still committed to erecting near ties with India, despite” believable allegations of the Indian government’s involvement” in the payoff of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Canada- grounded National Post reported.
India has rejected the claims as” absurd” and” motivated”. Pointing to the adding influence of India worldwide, Trudeau said that it’s” extremely important” that Canada and its abettors continue to engage with India. ” India is a growing profitable power and important geopolitical player.
And as we presented with our Indo- Pacific strategy, just last time, we are veritably serious about erecting near ties with India,” he’d told journalists. ” At the same time, obviously, as a rule of law country, we need to emphasize that India needs to work with Canada to insure that we get the full data of this matter,” National Post quoted Trudeau as saying.
