External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar confirmed that there was a discussion of the India-Canada dispute in his meetings with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Minister met with the U.S. cabinet officials on September 28, during his visit to Washington DC.
There has been much interest in the explosive allegations of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India was involved with the killing of a Canadian Khalistani separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia earlier this year. India has denied any involvement in the killing.
“Did I speak about it [ the row with Canada] with Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken? Yes I did,” he said, speaking at a discussion organized by the Hudson Institute on September 29 morning.
Mr Jaishankar met separately with Mr Sullivan and Mr Blinken, and noted that he had heard U.S. views and assessments of the India-Canada situation in those discussions.
The minister said that he hoped the Indian and US sides had come out of these meetings “better informed”.
“Secretary Blinken also took the opportunity to urge India to cooperate fully with the ongoing Canadian investigation,” a State Department Spokesperson told The Hindu on Friday, pointing to the official readout which listed a range of issues that were discussed .
To understand the issue, Mr Jaishankar told the audience at Hudson, one had to appreciate that there had been “great friction” , since the 1980s, between India and Canada because of Ottawa’s “very permissive” attitude towards terrorists and extremists.
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“They have been given operating space in Canada, because of the compulsions of Canadian politics, ” Mr Jaishankar said, adding that Canada looked probably very different to Americans. He was making the point that interests contribute to perceptions of a country.
For India, he said, the perception was that Canada had a “very toxic combination” of organized crime from India, trafficking in people, mixed with secessionism.
“My diplomats are unsafe going to the Embassy or the consulates in Canada,” and publicly intimidated, Mr Jaishankar said, explaining why he had to temporarily suspend visa operations.
Asked for a status report on the India-Canada row, the Minister repeated a position he had stated in New York earlier this week, neither categorically confirming or denying that he had seen evidence of the government’s role in Mr Nijjar’s killing. Ottawa has insisted that it presented New Delhi with such evidence.
“The Canadian Prime Minister made some allegations initially privately and then publicly. And our responses to him, both in private and public, were that what he was alleging was not consistent with our policy,” Mr Jaishankar said, adding that if the Canadian government had anything “relevant and specific” for India to look at (i.e., evidence), the government would look at it.
“That’s where that conversation is, at this point of time,” the minister said.
