India Ties Have Undergone Tonal Shift After US Accusations Trudeau

TORONTO, (IANS) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Ottawa’s relations with New Delhi appear to have undergone “a tonal shift”, following the US indictment of an Indian national in a plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil.

The US indictment appears to have convinced the Narendra Modi government to adopt a more sober tone, Trudeau told CBC news channel in a year-end interview.

“I think there is a beginning of an understanding that they can’t bluster their way through this and there is an openness to collaborating in a way that perhaps they were less open before,” the Canadian PM said.

“There’s an understanding that maybe just churning out attacks against Canada isn’t going to make this problem go away.”

India had rejected Trudeau’s claims as “absurd and motivated” hours after the Prime Minister said in September that there are credible allegations of a potential link over India’s involvement in Khalistan leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing in Canada.

Trudeau told CBC that Canada does not want to be in a situation of fighting with India right now over Nijjar’s killing, and instead wants to work on the trade deal and advancing the Indo-Pacific strategy.

However, he added that it is “foundational for Canada to stand up for people’s rights, for people’s safety, and for the rule of law. And that’s what we’re going to do”.

New Delhi has constituted a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the security concerns raised by the US government, it has asked Ottawa to show “concrete evidence” backing Trudeau’s allegations.

Reacting to Trudeau’s remarks, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, “as far as Canada is concerned, they have consistently given space to anti-India extremists and violence. That is at the heart of the issue”.

In an interview to Canadian Press last week, Trudeau said that his statement linking Indian agents to the killing of Nijjar was meant to deter India from repeating a similar action in the country. He said the message was intended as an extra ‘level of deterrence’ as “too many Canadians were worried that they were vulnerable”.