US Gainer In India-Canada Diplomatic Slugfest
US President Joe Biden with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau
Deepening Defence Ties With US Cushion India From Canada Cauldron
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 16: After India and Canada diplomatic tit-for-tat actions, the spotlight is turning to gains for Washington. India has gone guns blazing in attacking Canadian Prime Minister Justine Trudeau over his alleged “appeasement of the Sikh separatists”.
Ahead of the visit of an Indian delegation to the US, the State Department said The State Department said that “as part of the Indian government committee’s ongoing investigation, the visiting officials will share information they have obtained and receive an update from American authorities on how the case is proceeding”. The US is probing the failed assassination bid on Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
“India has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow up steps, as necessary,” the State Department said.
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India and the US are cooperating in probing the failed murder plot of Pannun. The US President, Joe Biden, has made no public statement on the Pannun case. Also, no senior US officials have gone public with claims on the Pannun murder plot.
But Trudeau has been on an offensive since last year in accusing the involvement of the Indian officials in the killing of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. For New Delhi, Trudeau crossed the red line this week by going an extra step ahead to lob more ammo against India.
Michael Kugleman, a strategic affairs analyst, told Asianet in an interview that the approaches of the US and Canada are markedly contrasting in their respective approach with India. He stressed that the Five Eyes members have been quick in condemning attacks by the Sikh separatists on Indian embassies in their countries with the exception of Canada.
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“The domestic political compulsion of Trudeau in Canada is certainly a factor that is obvious in the public statements made by him,” he said. Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand are members of Five Eyes, which is an intelligence sharing network.
“The US is the only winner here. The Biden White House skilfully handled the fallouts from the alleged assassination plot against Pannun,” stated former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar in an article in Indian Punchline.
He spotlighted the deepening defence ties between India and the US. Within days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi coming back to India after attending the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Delaware, hosted by Biden, India approved a multi-billion dollar predator deal with Washington.
“Several billion dollars worth arms deals have been wrapped up in these past couple of years alone. Modi cleared a $3 billion drone deal just last Wednesday. The arms trade between India and the US has touched an impressive figure of $25 billion,” added Bhadrakumar.
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India and the US are collaborating on futuristic defence technologies. Besides, the US has also been passing intelligence per reports about Chinese activities across the line of actual control. India and the US have also held joint military exercises in Uttarakhand recently on the mountain warfare.
The diplomatic community believes that the US will milk the ongoing war of words between India and Canada in its advantage. For India, the risk involves the likely outflow of the hot money invested in the capital markets with major source being the pension funds of Canada.
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