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Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations facilitates the diplomatic relationship between any two nation-states. So, the Vienna Convention of the year 1961 is International Law because it is a treaty which actually does define the framework in which diplomatic relations endures either positively and negatively.
Though broadly speaking its aim is to enable friend like relationship between any two nation-states, it is not true for every bilateral relationship in the globe; there are several dyads that are an exception including US-China, US-Russia, Israel-Iran, India-China, India-Pakistan, North Korea-South Korea etc.
The cornerstone of the Vienna Convention is that diplomatic immunity is granted to the people who work in any diplomatic mission. As a result, they work without the fear of being coerced or threatened by the host government. It is ratified and implemented by almost all countries in the globe. However, violations of this convention have happened on numerous occasions including during the revolution in Iran of 1979 where diplomats of the US embassy were kept hostage.
Jimmy Carter, the then US President, barely managed to salvage the situation. In 1967, India and China had come to blows as both the governments did not allow the diplomats in Beijing (Indian Embassy) and New Delhi (Chinese Embassy) to come out of their respective Embassies, in the Indian Embassy even food was not allowed to get in. Recently, India expelled Canadian diplomats over the so-called Trudeau’s ‘credible allegations’ that India was involved in the killing of a Khalistani person Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In 1980s Pakistan sponsored terrorism had led to Khalistan movement in the Indian State of Punjab, as Pakistan was hellbent on creating a distinct country for the Sikhs with the State of Punjab separating from India. As a result the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed on 31 October 1984. So, whether it is the Congress party, Communist party of India they are in agreement with the policies of the right-wing Modi Government currently. In short everyone is onboard with this national consensus. Last year India had forcefully asked forty-one Canadian diplomats to leave New Delhi as these Canadians were found involved in nefarious activities inside Punjab. The Trudeau government had called it a violation of International Law, technically it was wrong as Canada has repeatedly violated the core element of the UN Charter which is sovereignty of a nation-state in this case India. Last year in Canada the Khalistanis took out a tableau celebrating the killing of Indira Gandhi (she was a Congress Prime Minister). Trudeau made allegations against the Government of India on September 18, 2023 with the basis of scratchy intelligence that the Americans shared with Canada. He himself has acknowledged that on this date he did not have hard evidence to back up his claim that the Government of India had a direct role in the Nijjar killing. Pressure is growing on Trudeau inside Canada to resign. He is a deeply unpopular leader in Canada. So, domestic politics is making him play to the gallery of the large Khalistani diaspora (Indian origin) in Canada. Whatever India decides on October 14, 2024 to bring back it’s High Commissioner and other diplomats back to India is the correct thing to do as they have been for long facing death threats in Canada. The Trudeau Government has been in support of all those elements in the name of free speech inside Canada who keep making terrorist threats against India. For more than a year Trudeau has not presented any evidence of Agents of the Government of India involved in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which he had promised to do after September 18, 2023. Trudeau dealt on this issue with India in a very immature manner, this is not how Statesmen behave. In general, when the Vienna Convention seems to have been followed in letter and spirit, there have been notable exceptions too.
For example, at the Russian Embassy in Washington DC, the US once installed surveillance equipment underneath the Russian Embassy to keep track of the Russian activities inside the Embassy premises. This was a clear violation of Article 22 of this Convention which says that the premise of any Embassy, High Commission and Consulates cannot be violated as it should not be entered by the host government except with prior permission; also, host government shall not inspect the premise, but also never seize their documents/property, as well as to be protecting the mission from intruding/damage. What the US did was an intrusion of the Russian Embassy. So, long story short, there have been shortcomings of the Vienna Convention that can be exploited by nation-states to carry out surveillance, espionage etc but mostly this Convention has held all the countries of the UN in good stead despite the world being dangerous!
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