Canada skips Parliament-20 meeting; India flags terrorism as core issue
Parliament 20
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, October 12: There appears no breakthrough in the ongoing India-Canada diplomatic tension. Speaker of Canadian parliament Raymonde Gagne has skipped the meeting of parliaments of G20 nations and invitees, which commenced on Thursday.
India has reiterated that the core issue with Canada remains shelter given to terrorists. The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi also refused to confirm the report of the Financial Times that India and Canada had held high level contacts to diffuse tension.
Sources in the Lok Sabha secretariat confirmed that the Canadian Speaker has skipped the Parliament-20 meeting. Incidentally, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had last week confirmed the participation of his Canadian counterpart. The skipping of the Canadian Speaker appears to confirm that there is no breakthrough in the diplomatic tension between Canada and India.
“We have been in touch with Canadians at various levels but we do not have any specific information regarding any particular interaction,” Bagchi told reporters on Thursday during the weekly briefing. The FT had reported that External Affairs Minister S Jaishanakar had met his Melanie Joly. Reports also claim that Canada is yet to reduce the diplomatic staff in New Delhi despite India’s deadline lapsing. Canada reportedly has simply shifted a few of the diplomatic staff to countries such as Singapore.
“We don’t know really how it will help to address the core issue of Canada giving space to terrorists and criminal elements,” Bagchi said during the MEA presser, while reiterating demand from Canada “to take more seriously their international obligations to provide security to our diplomats in their premises”. It may be recalled that Jaishankar in a discussion at the Hudson Institute in the US had stated that “my diplomats don’t feel safe going out of the consulates in Canada” while stressing lack of action on the part of Ottawa to address the Indian concerns to extremists targeting diplomats.
In the meantime, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been dialing the heads of the states such as the UAE to raise the issue of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who according to India was a terrorist. Trudeau has been seeking support from the world leaders for the rule of law. However, India has called the charges of the Canadian prime minister against New Delhi in the Nijjar killing case absurd.
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