New Delhi: Ahead of Indian and Canadian leaders coming face-to-face in Italy for first time since relations nosedived, India reiterated on June 12 that the main issue with Ottawa was the political latitude given to Khalistani extremists.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Italy to attend the G7’s outreach session on June 14.
Since Canada is a member of the G7, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would also be at the session. This will thus be the first time that they will see each other since their tense meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi last September.
FILE IMAGE: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi last week. Photo: Twittter/Justin Trudeau
Later that month, Trudeau made a stunning accusation against India for being potentially involved in the killing of a Canadian national, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whom Indian security agencies had labelled as a Khalistani terrorist.
India had vehemently dismissed the allegations and relations have largely been frozen since then. Later in November, an unsealed chargesheet of US prosecutors had indicated that there was a connection between the case of the targeting of an US Sikh lawyer with the Canadian killing. US investigators had accused an Indian national Nikhil Gupta of hiring a hitman to attempt to kill the lawyer, on instructions of an Indian government official.
While Modi will have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, there is no indication that one of them would be with the Canadian PM.
“But insofar as Canada is concerned, I think the main issue with regard to Canada continues to be the political space that Canada provides to anti-India elements which advocate extremism and violence, and we have repeatedly conveyed our deep concerns to them and we expect them to take strong action,” said foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra.
Last week, the Canadian PM had congratulated Modi on his re-election. Stating that he was ready to take forward the relationship, Trudeau added that it had to be “anchored to human rights, diversity, and the rule of law”. Modi responded that India “looks forward to working with Canada based on mutual understanding and respect for each other’s concerns”.
A day before that, Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) released a heavily redacted report alleging that some Canadian lawmakers had deliberately assisted foreign governments like China and India to interfere in Canadian politics. The report had also claimed that India was “second-most significant foreign interference threat to Canada’s democratic institutions and processes”.
