New Delhi: Canada is yet to provide any evidence to India on an alleged link between Indian agents and the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said during a discussion at Wilton Park, London, on the last leg of his visit to the United Kingdom this week. India is not “ruling out” any investigation into Ottawa’s allegations, he added.
Speaking Wednesday at an event titled ‘How a billion people see the world’, Jaishankar said Canadian politics has “given space to violent and extreme political opinions which advocate separatism from India”, and that “these people have been accommodated in Canadian politics”.
An interaction @WiltonPark, London with @lionelbarber. https://t.co/f4YssYBNmM
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) November 15, 2023
“We’ve had attacks on the High Commission, smoke bombs thrown at the High Commission. My consul general and other diplomats were intimidated in public, on record, with no action taken by those who did know,” the external affairs minister further said, adding that freedom of expression must not be “misused” in Canada.
Jaishankar was on an official visit to the UK from 11 to 15 November. He met UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and several other officials, including new Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was appointed after a major cabinet reshuffle earlier this week.
A pleasure to meet UK Foreign Secretary @David_Cameron this afternoon on his first day in office. Congratulated him on his appointment.
Held a detailed discussion on realizing the full potential of our strategic partnership.
Also exchanged views on the situation in West Asia,… pic.twitter.com/guxyCxLuRM
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) November 13, 2023
At the Wilton Park event, he also spoke on India’s border relations with China, purchases of Russian oil, its relationship with neighbours like Bangladesh and evolving Indo-US ties.
India and Canada have been embroiled in a diplomatic row ever since Canadian PM Justin Trudeau in September accused New Delhi of being behind Nijjar’s killing. Amid the row, Canada withdrew several diplomats from India. Jaishankar’s latest comments on Canada come days after he discussed the matter with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi last week. Blinken had said that the US is a “friend of both” nations, and urged India to cooperate with Canada on its investigation.
The discussion in London took place at the Royal Over-Seas League Club and was moderated by journalist and former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber. During the session, Barber noted that arguments have been made that countries like Russia, the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel have allegedly committed extraterritorial assassinations in the past.
Jaishankar joked that he “doesn’t dispute the list of countries”, but added that that’s not the logic which should be pursued to justify any such killing.
Also read: ‘Gang war’ involving Nijjar-style killings spreads in Canada — 3 including child shot dead in a week
Ties with US
Noting that there is new enthusiasm between India and the US, the Indian foreign minister said during the discussion that America is a power that is in the midst of “reinventing” itself especially after its military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq had been “hugely damaging” to its position on the world stage.
He added that India “worked well” with former US President Donald Trump for four years, at a time when the US presidential elections are a year away.
“We did four years with Trump and we worked well with him. We’ve figured out how to work with Americans of different kinds,” he said.
India-China border clash ‘vitiated’ relationship
On India’s border relations with China, Jaishankar remarked that the Galwan Valley clash in 2020 “vitiated” the bilateral relationship.
“From 1975-2020, there was actually no bloodshed on the border at all [LAC]. Then in 2020, for whatever reason, the Chinese did not continue to adhere to agreements. There was a big movement of troops to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and eventually there was a clash where a few soldiers died,” he said.
He further said: “What that has done is it has really vitiated the relationship. It has vitiated the relationship in terms of bringing back memories of a conflict and sharp differences and…consequences on credibility and trust.”
India and China have held over 20 commander-level talks about the border situation where there continues to be a large presence of troops from both sides in certain sectors of the LAC.
‘India softened global oil markets’
During the discussion, Jaishankar fielded questions on India’s relationship with Russia, especially amid the Ukraine war, and why in his book ‘The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World’, he noted that there has been exceptional stability in the relationship between New Delhi and Moscow.
“It is not automatic that if a country is perceived a certain way from the West that that logic extends to the East…I think when we approach Russia — those 70-odd years of history, working together and steadiness — that is very much a factor in our minds,” he said, when asked why New Delhi has not explicitly condemned Russia’s invasion into Ukraine nor joined Western sanctions against Moscow.
He also remarked that India’s purchases of oil from Russia — approximately a million barrels a day in this fiscal — helped stabilise global oil markets. “Had we not bought oil from Russia, I think global oil prices would have gone higher. We’ve softened the oil and gas markets through our purchase policies. We have managed global inflation so frankly.”
“I’m waiting for a thank you,” he added.
India-Bangladesh share ‘model relationship’
During the discussion in London, Bangladesh’s High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem asked the Indian foreign minister about where Bangladesh stands in Indian foreign policy.
Jaishankar remarked that the two countries share a “model relationship”, in which the two have settled a land boundary, resolved differences on maritime boundary and are bolstering energy ties.
This comes months before Bangladesh is set to hold its general elections. The US and the UK have repeatedly expressed concerns over the fairness of the upcoming polls. The issue was a topic of discussion during the Indo-US 2+2 dialogue in New Delhi last week.
However, India said it supports Bangladesh’s democratic processes and that an election is a domestic matter.
“We, as a close friend and a partner of Bangladesh, we respect the democratic processes in Bangladesh and will continue to support that country’s vision of a stable, peaceful, and a progressive nation that the people of that country seek for themselves,” Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had said in a briefing following the 2+2 dialogue.
“We were very clear in sharing our perspective on how we look at our situation in different parts of the world. And that includes Bangladesh with the US side during these discussions,” he’d added.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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