PM Modi just lately met with Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. (FILE)
The federal government has determined to withdraw its Excessive Commissioner in Canada after Ottawa linked him and another Indian diplomats to the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “We have now no religion within the present Canadian Authorities’s dedication to make sure their safety,” the federal government conveyed to the Canadian Cost d’Affaires who was summoned by the Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) this night.
“It was underlined that in an environment of extremism and violence, the Trudeau Authorities’s actions endangered their security. We have now no religion within the present Canadian Authorities’s dedication to make sure their safety. Due to this fact, the Authorities of India has determined to withdraw the Excessive Commissioner and different focused diplomats and officers,” the international ministry mentioned.
The ties between the 2 nations plunged additional after Canada mentioned it was investigating the Indian Excessive Commissioner as a “individual of curiosity” within the killing of Nijjar.
The Overseas Ministry acquired a “diplomatic communication from Canada yesterday suggesting that the Indian Excessive Commissioner and different diplomats are ‘individuals of curiosity’ in a matter associated to an investigation in that nation”.
It mentioned that the aspersions forged on Excessive Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma by Canada had been “ludicrous”.
“Excessive Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma is India’s senior-most serving diplomat with a distinguished profession spanning 36 years. He has been an Ambassador in Japan and Sudan, whereas additionally serving in Italy, Turkiye, Vietnam and China. The aspersions forged on him by the Authorities of Canada are ludicrous and should be handled with contempt,” the international ministry mentioned.
It hit out on the “preposterous” allegations, terming them a “technique of smearing India for political good points”.
The federal government additionally knowledgeable the senior diplomat of Canada this night that the “baseless concentrating on of the Indian Excessive Commissioner and different diplomats and officers in Canada was utterly unacceptable”.
It was additionally conveyed that India reserves the best to take additional steps in response to the Trudeau Authorities’s help for extremism, violence and separatism towards India, it mentioned.
The federal government assertion this morning slammed Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau’s “hostility to India”, including, in 2018, his go to to India, “which was aimed toward currying favour with a vote financial institution, rebounded to his discomfort”.
“His Cupboard has included people who’ve brazenly related to an extremist and separatist agenda concerning India,” it mentioned.
Final 12 months, India curbed visas for Canadians and compelled Ottawa to withdraw diplomats.
The newest dip within the ties comes simply days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assembly with Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos. Whereas Trudeau described the assembly as a “temporary change”, sources in New Delhi mentioned there was no substantive dialogue between the 2 leaders.
PM Modi and Trudeau’s first assembly after Canada raised allegations concerning Nijjar’s dying was on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy in June this 12 months.
India has been sustaining that the principle situation between the 2 nations is that of Canada – residence to round 7,70,000 Sikhs – giving area to pro-Khalistan parts “working from their soil with impunity”, sources in New Delhi mentioned.
Trudeau, in the meantime, has insisted that his stand on the matter stays the identical.