Encourage India to cooperate with Canada probe: US
So far, Washington has tried to tread a fine line by calling on India to cooperate with Canada.The state department continued this line prior to the Jaishankar-Blinken meeting in Washington, during a meeting of the four-nation Quad.
The US has urged India to cooperate with Canada’s investigation into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said before a meeting between foreign minister S. Jaishankar and his opposite number, secretary of state Anthony Blinken.
Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan leader whom India designated a terrorist in 2020, is at the centre of a diplomatic row between India and Canada, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accusing India of having a hand in Nijjar’s death in Canada.
The allegations have touched off a diplomatic crisis with the two countries expelling diplomats and India suspending visas issued to Canadians.
Both sides have also been actively reaching out to diplomatic allies like the US, UK and Australia—along with India, the Quad. So far, Washington has tried to tread a fine line by calling on India to cooperate with Canada.
The state department continued this line prior to the Jaishankar-Blinken meeting in Washington, during a meeting of the four-nation Quad.
“It was a meeting of a number of countries and it did not come up in that meeting. But we have engaged with our Indian counterparts on this issue and urged them to fully cooperate with the Canadian investigation,” said Miller, when asked by reporters if Blinken raised Canada’s allegations with Jaishankar during the Quad foreign ministers meeting in New York.
“I don’t want to preview the comment—the conversations he will have in that meeting, but as we’ve made clear, we’ve raised this; we have engaged with our Indian counterparts on this and encouraged them to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, and we continue to encourage them to cooperate,” Miller said when asked if Blinken planned to raise the issue during the bilateral meeting scheduled for Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Jaishankar met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan, who is a close adviser to President Joe Biden, last week expressed “deep concern” about the allegations.
“I’m not going to get into the substance of private diplomatic conversations, but we are in constant contact with our Canadian counterparts. We are consulting with them closely, we support the efforts that they are undertaking in this investigation, and we have also been in touch with the Indian government as well,” he said in a press briefing last week.
However, he rejected insinuations of a split between the US and Canada, an old ally.
“I have seen in the press some efforts to try to drive a wedge between the United States and Canada on this issue. And I firmly reject the idea that there is a wedge between the US and Canada,” Sullivan said.
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First Published:28 Sep 2023, 11:11 PM IST
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