“Not Looking To Escalate, Want Constructive Ties” With India: Canada PM

Toronto:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday stated Canada was going via an “extraordinarily difficult time” with India however asserted that Ottawa will proceed to have “constructive relations” with New Delhi, amid the diplomatic row between the 2 international locations over the killing of a Khalistani separatist.

Talking to reporters in Ottawa, Mr Trudeau additionally stated that it is essential for Canada to have diplomats on the bottom in India, amid a report by London-based Monetary Occasions that New Delhi desires as many as 41 of 62 remaining Canadian diplomats in a foreign country, the Toronto Solar newspaper reported.

“Clearly, we’re going via a particularly difficult time with India proper now,” Mr Trudeau was quoted as saying by the Canadian newspaper.

He, nevertheless, didn’t verify the FT report that India has requested Canada to withdraw 41 of 62 diplomats from the nation.

Requested if his authorities would retaliate by asking India to take away diplomats based mostly in Canada, Mr Trudeau insisted his authorities would attempt to hold working with New Delhi.

“We’re not seeking to escalate, as I’ve stated, we will be doing the work that issues in persevering with to have constructive relations with India via this extraordinarily troublesome time,” Mr Trudeau was quoted as saying by the state-run CBC News.

Tensions flared between India and Canada final month following Mr Trudeau’s allegations of “potential” involvement of Indian brokers within the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia. India angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”.

Nijjar was shot useless by two masked gunmen. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.

Final month, India requested Canada to downsize its diplomatic workers within the nation, arguing that there ought to be parity in energy and rank equivalence within the mutual diplomatic presence. The dimensions of Canadian diplomatic workers in India is bigger than what New Delhi has in Canada.

India additionally requested Canada to come back down laborious on terrorists and anti-India components working from its soil and suspended visa companies for Canadians.

Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar instructed journalists in Washington final week that the governments of India and Canada should speak to one another and see how they resolve their variations over the difficulty and underlined that the bigger problem of “permissiveness” should be flagged and addressed.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)