New Delhi: India has resumed its visa services in Canada for some categories including entry, business, medical, and conference visas. This comes a month after it suspended them amid declining ties between New Delhi and Ottawa over the killing of Sikh separatist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The Indian High Commission in Ottawa said in a statement that after a “considered review of the security situation that takes into account some recent Canadian measures in this regard, it has been decided to resume visa services”. But this did not include tourist visas.
Last month, India temporarily suspended visa services citing heightened security threats to its missions and diplomats. In July this year, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Verma & Consul General in Toronto Apoorva Srivastava were targeted in posters purportedly circulated by Sikh extremists, accusing them of being involved in Nijjar’s killing.
The latest Press Release on resumption of visa service may be seen here. @MEAIndia @IndianDiplomacy @PIB_India @DDNewslive @ANI @WIONews @TOIIndiaNews @htTweets @cgivancouver @IndiainToronto pic.twitter.com/iwKIgF2qin
— India in Canada (@HCI_Ottawa) October 25, 2023
In his remarks to ANI Sunday, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said ties between New Delhi and Ottawa are going through a “difficult phase”.
“Some weeks ago, we stopped issuing visas in Canada because it was no longer safe for our diplomats to go to work to issue visas. So their safety and security was the primary reason we had to temporarily stop the issue of visas,” Jaishankar said, reiterating that “safety and security of diplomats is the most fundamental aspect of the Vienna Convention”.
Tensions between India and Canada have been rising since last month after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed authorities were investigating “credible allegations of potential links” between Indian government agents and Nijjar’s killing.
Nijjar was reportedly shot dead by unidentified assailants on 18 June in Surrey, Canada.
India has rejected the allegations as “absurd and motivated”. The two countries have also expelled each other’s diplomats.
Last week, the Canadian government withdrew 41 diplomats and 42 dependents alleging that New Delhi’s request for diplomatic parity was a “violation of international law and the Vienna Convention”.
While Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said India gave “no good reason” for the overnight withdrawal of diplomatic immunity of its staff, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called New Delhi’s response “completely unreasonable and escalatory”, which will impact millions of lives.
The Indian government rejected these allegations. “The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa,” the MEA said in its statement.
Meanwhile, government sources told ThePrint that according to Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR), “the receiving state has the right to limit the size of a diplomatic mission to what it considers reasonable and normal.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: Trudeau ‘laughing stock’ in India, ‘doormat’ for Biden — what Canada oppn leader told radio station