Friction With Canada Since 1980s; Spoke To Blinken, Sullivan: Jaishankar In US
External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday confirmed that he spoke to Jake Sullivan and Blinken on the Canada row — the ongoing diplomatic crisis between India and Canada following Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s public allegation that India had a role in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
“Yes I did,” Jaishankar said replying to a question. “They obviously shared the US views and the assessment of the whole situation. I explained to them, at some length, the summary of the concerns which I had. Hopefully, we both came out of those meetings better informed,” Jaishankar said.
“The Canadian PM made some allegations initially privately, and then publicly. And, our, response to him, both in private and public, were that what he was alleging was not consistent with our policy. And that if he had, if his government had anything relevant and specific they would like us to look into, we were open to looking at it. Now, that’s where that conversation is at this point of time…” Jaishankar said.
“But to understand that conversation, you have to also understand that this has been an issue of great friction for many years with Canada, in fact going back to the 1980s. Then it became dormant. But in the last few years, it has come back very much into play, because of what we consider to be a very permissive Canadian attitude towards terrorists, extremist people who openly advocate violence. And they have been given operating space in Canada because of the compulsions of Canadian politics…” Jaishankar said.
Canada toxic combination of issues and people …: Jaishankar
“For Americans, Canada looks very different but for India, Canada is a country where organised crime from India, mixed with trafficking in people, mixed with secessionism, violence, terrorism –it’s a very toxic combination of issues and people who have found operating space there. So a lot of our tensions with Canada which well preceded what Mr Trudeau said actually come out of that. And today I am in a situation where my diplomats are unsafe going to the embassy or to the consulates in Canada. They are publicly intimidated and that has actually compelled me to even temporarily suspend visa operations in Canada. Often countries look very different depending on how you see them and what your interests are, but I have this problem with Canada,” Jaishankar said.
What US said on India’s diplomatic row with Canada
The US clarified its stance on the India-Canada row that it is in favour of the investigation into Nijjar’s killing and it wants India to cooperate with the investigation. As the issue came up amid Jaishankar’s ongoing US visit, US State department spokeperson Mathew Miller said India can speak for itself regarding Canadian allegations.