&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 mistake” by supporting criminal activity in Canada.
Speaking at a news conference in Ottawa, Trudeau highlighted continuing tensions between the two countries and emphasized the importance of an upcoming meeting of their national security advisers scheduled for this weekend in Singapore.
“When I spoke to Prime Minister Modi late last week, I mentioned how extremely important it would be for our national security advisers to meet in Singapore this weekend. He knew about this meeting and I pressed him that this meeting requires It's very, very important, you have to come to terms with it,” Trudeau said.
The press conference was attended by Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc and Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly.
Trudeau also spoke about the broader implications of the Canada-India relationship, accusing the Indian government of making a “fundamental mistake” in supporting criminal activity against Canadians.
“The Government of India made a fundamental mistake in thinking it could facilitate criminal activity against Canadians on Canadian soil, whether it be murder or extortion. This is absolutely unacceptable,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau said that despite the tensions, Canada remains committed to cooperation with India.
# Look | Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “This is not a choice Canada made to cool Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy and a country with which we have deep, historic people-to-people trade ties. Times of unrest… pic.twitter.com/iBu01o8Omc
— ANI (@ANI) October 14, 2024
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“Canada did not make a choice to create a chill in Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy, a country with which we have deep, historic, people-to-people trade relations at a time when geopolitical instability means democracy. Therefore, when we began to understand through intelligence agencies that perhaps India was behind the murder of (Hardeep Singh), the Canadian killed on Canadian soil last summer. Saying India knows this has happened, work with us to fix it, he said.
“We don't want to fight it, but obviously the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil is not something we as a country can ignore,” he added.
Trudeau also said Canada has taken a transparent approach and sought cooperation with Indian authorities. “So at every step we have told India everything we know. I spoke directly to Prime Minister Modi. We made contact with the intelligence equivalent and unfortunately at every turn after my statement. House of Commons last September and to date the Government of India Refusal to respond, withholding information, attack on me personally and on the integrity of the Government of Canada, its officials and police agencies,” he said.
He also claimed that Canada was trying to work with India to keep Canadians safe.
Trudeau also said Canadian authorities were trying to work with India to keep Canadians safe.
“We simply said we would allow our agencies to operate, especially from agency intelligence collection to police investigations leading to arrests, prosecutions and consequences within a rigorously strong and independent judiciary. Indeed, last week, when the RCMP in India passed their bill, “When enforcement reached the adversary, there was an opportunity to work together to ensure accountability and sustain change and action. “Canadians are safe because that is our top priority,” he said.
However, Trudeau said India rejected these efforts.
“The Government of India has rejected these advances and rejected our efforts to find a way to overcome them. And this brought us to the point where we had to break the chain of activity of Indian diplomats in Canada to direct brutal influence on Canadians. This is exactly what is happening all over the country,” he added.
Diplomatic conflicts arose following allegations made by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Mike Duhem, who claimed to have information about criminal activities carried out by agents of the Indian government.
India expelled six Canadian diplomats on Monday, hours after a call from Canadian chargé d'affaires Stuart Wheeler, and said “baseless attacks” on the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats and officials in Canada were completely unacceptable.
Reuters earlier quoted a Canadian government source as saying the move came after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats after police collected evidence.
Earlier, India on Monday “strongly” rejected a diplomatic message from Canada suggesting that the Indian high commissioner and other diplomats were “persons of interest” in the investigation, calling them “ludicrous allegations” and part of Justin Trudeau's political agenda. government
In a scathing statement, India said Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's hostility towards India has long been proven and that his government has knowingly provided a space for violent extremists and terrorists to harass, threaten and intimidate Indian diplomats and community leaders in Canada.
Relations between India and Canada deteriorated after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made “credible allegations” of India's involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijji in a parliamentary speech last year.
Nijjar, named a terrorist by India's National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June 2023.
India vehemently denies the allegations, calling them “baseless” and “unprovoked.” She also accused Canada of harboring extremist and anti-India elements in the country.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been modified by Business Standards staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
