Jaishankar, Canadian FM held secret meeting in US to solve crisis: Report
The Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, held a secret meeting with India’s Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar.
In Washington days ago amid the diplomatic stand-off between the two countries over Canada’s allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, British newspaper Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Neither Canada’s nor India’s foreign ministry has confirmed the meeting.
The report also mentioned that the Canadian government was making efforts to resolve the strained diplomatic situation with New Delhi, following reports that Canadian diplomats had been given a deadline to leave India or risk losing their diplomatic immunity.
The Canadian foreign minister had said earlier this month that they are trying to resolve the issue privately.
“We are in contact with the government of India. We take Canadian diplomats’ safety very seriously, and we will continue to engage privately because we think diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private,” the Canadian minister said, following New Delhi’s direction to reduce the diplomatic staff in India.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also stated that his country does not want to “escalate the situation” with India and confirmed that Canada will continue to “engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi”.
A recent report by Canada’s CTV News mentioned that the country has relocated approximately 30 diplomatic staff members from India to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.
The relations between India and Canada worsened after Trudeau, On September 19, alleged a “potential” involvement of Indian agents” in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia. Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18.
Dismissing the allegations, India responded strongly and called the charges “absurd’ and “motivated.” In a tit-for-tat response to Canada’s expulsion of an Indian official, New Delhi had also expelled a senior Canadian diplomat. Last week, citing Canada’s “higher diplomatic presence” in India, the External Affairs Ministry asked Ottawa to reduce staff to “reach parity” in diplomatic presence.