New Delhi: Claims emerged Wednesday that Canadian diplomats remain in India despite being given a “deadline” to leave, and that External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly held a secret meeting in Washington to discuss the diplomatic spat between their two countries.
ThePrint reached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi for a response, but declined to comment or offer clarity on these claims. ThePrint also reached the Canadian High Commission in India over phone to confirm the number of Canadian diplomats who remain in the country, but did not receive a response.
Wednesday’s report, published in Financial Times, claimed Ottawa and New Delhi are still in talks on how the two countries can reach “parity” in diplomatic presence. The newspaper had last week reported that India told Canada to withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country by 10 October, a deadline which expired Tuesday.
On 21 September, the MEA announced that it had told Canada to reduce their strength of diplomats in the country as they far outnumber Indian envoys in Canada.
On 5 October, the MEA said talks on the “modalities” to achieve parity were ongoing with Canadian officials. The spokesperson, however, neither confirmed nor denied reports that suggested India had asked over 40 Canadian diplomats to leave the country by 10 October.
The latest report in Financial Times also claims Ottawa has not withdrawn any officials from India as yet. “One Canadian official said Ottawa had not withdrawn any diplomats ahead of the deadline,” said the report.
Also read: ‘Political convenience’ can’t determine response to terror, says Jaishankar at UN amid Canada row
Push for parity
The claim that Canadian diplomats have not been withdrawn from India is contrary to a CBC report last week which, based on unnamed sources, claimed Canada had relocated some lower-level diplomatic staff stationed outside of Delhi to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore over the past several weeks.
ThePrint had on 22 September reported that the Canadian diplomatic strength is three times that of India’s. Canada also has four missions in India, including the High Commission in Delhi while India has three.
ThePrint had also spoken to several former ambassadors who said the stress on parity could result in the shutting down of one of the three Canadian consulates in India.
India and Canada are locked in a diplomatic conflict following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement last month that his security forces were “actively pursuing credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June.
India retaliated in a sharply-worded statement within hours, calling Trudeau’s charge “absurd and motivated”. The country had said it was “willing to look at any specific information”, but that Canada had not presented any “specific evidence” to back its claims.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)