&w=1024&resize=1024,0&ssl=1 "Justin Trudeau accused India of supporting criminal activities in Canada Foreign Defense Security News")
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused the Indian government of making a “fundamental error” by supporting criminal activities in Canada.
Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa, Trudeau highlighted ongoing tensions between the two countries and stressed the importance of an upcoming meeting between their national security advisers scheduled for this weekend in Singapore.
“When I spoke to Prime Minister Modi late last week, I mentioned how incredibly important the meeting between our National Security Advisors in Singapore this weekend would be. He was aware of this meeting and I pressed him that this meeting needs to happen. Very, very important. To be taken with it,” Trudeau said.
The press conference was attended by Canada's Minister of Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dominic LeBlanc, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly.
Trudeau also spoke about the broader implications of Canada-India relations, claiming the Indian government made a “fundamental error” by supporting criminal activity against Canadians.
“The Indian government has made a fundamental mistake in thinking that it can facilitate criminal activity against Canadians on Canadian soil, be it murder or extortion. This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Trudeau.
Trudeau said Canada remains committed to working with India despite tensions.
# To look | Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “It is not the choice Canada made to create a chill in Canada-India relations. India is a major democracy and a country with which we have deep historical people-to-people trade ties. Times when the hustle and bustle… pic.twitter.com/iBu01o8Omc
-ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2024
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“It is not a choice that Canada made to create a chill in Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy, a country with which we have deep historical people-to-people trade relations, at a time when instability around geopolitics means democracy. That's why when we began to understand through the intelligence agencies that perhaps India was behind the murder of (Hardeep Singh), a Canadian man killed on Canadian soil last summer. To say that India, we know this happened, work with us to fix this. ,” he stated.
“We don’t want to fight this, but obviously the murder of a Canadian on Canadian soil is not something we can ignore as a country,” he added.
Trudeau also said Canada has adopted a transparent approach and sought cooperation with Indian authorities. “So every step of the way, we have told India what we know. I spoke directly to Prime Minister Modi. We engaged with the intelligence counterpart and, unfortunately, every step of the way, after I made the statement. The House of Commons last September and so far the Indian government Denial of response, obfuscation, attack on me personally and on the integrity of the Government of Canada and its employees and its law enforcement agencies,” he said.
He also stated that Canada tried to cooperate with India to ensure the safety of Canadians.
Trudeau also said Canadian authorities have tried to work with India to ensure the safety of Canadians.
“We simply said that we will allow our agencies to function, especially from the collection of agency intelligence to police investigations that lead to arrests, prosecutions and consequences within a rigorously strong and independent judiciary system. In fact, last week when the RCMP in India enacted its law “When law enforcement reached out to the adversary, there was an avenue where we could work together to ensure accountability and sustain change and action. Canadians are safe because that is our top priority,” he said.
However, Trudeau said these efforts were rejected by India.
“The Indian government has rejected these advances and rejected our efforts to find a way to overcome them. And that has led us to this point where we have had to disrupt the chain of operations of Indian diplomats in Canada to direct violent influence on Canadians. This is exactly the country,” he added.
The diplomatic fallout followed allegations by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Mike Duhem, who claimed to have information about some criminal activities carried out by Indian government agents.
India on Monday expelled six Canadian diplomats, hours after it summoned Canada's chargé d'affaires, Stuart Wheeler, and said the “unfounded attack” on the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada was completely unacceptable .
Reuters earlier cited a Canadian government source as saying the move came after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after police gathered evidence.
Earlier, India on Monday “strongly” rejected a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in an investigation, calling them “absurd allegations” and part of India's political agenda. Justin Trudeau. Government
In a strongly worded statement, India said that Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility towards India has long been proven and that his government has knowingly provided violent extremists and terrorists with “space to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in the Canada”.
Relations between India and Canada soured after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a parliamentary speech last year, asserted “credible allegations” of India's involvement in the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijja.
Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June 2023.
India has vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “baseless” and “unprovoked”. He also accused Canada of harboring extremist and anti-India elements in its country.
(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standards team; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a distributed feed.)
