External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said the relationship between India and Canada right now is going through a difficult phase, adding that India has problems with certain segment of Canadian politics and the policies which flow from that. He said, the government had invoked parity with Canada in diplomatic presence as they had “concerns about continuous interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel”.
“Parity is very much provided for by the Vienna Convention, which is the relevant international rule on this. But in our case, we invoked parity because we had concerns about continuous interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel,” he said.
Regarding visas, Dr Jaishankar said, “Some weeks ago, we stopped issuing visas in Canada because it was no longer safe for our diplomats to go to work to issue visas. So their safety and security was the primary reason we had to temporarily stop the issue of visas. We’re tracking it very closely”.
EAM Jaishankar hoped that he expected the situation to ‘improve in the sense that our people would have greater confidence in being able to do their basic duty as diplomats’. He also reminded that ensuring safety and security of diplomats is the most fundamental aspect of the Vienna Convention. “And right now that is what has in many ways been challenged in Canada that our people are not safe, our diplomats are not safe. So if we see progress there, I would like very much to resume the issue of visas. My hope would be that it would be something which should happen very soon…”, he added.
The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations last month of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, announcing the return of the diplomats from India, on Thursday described New Delhi’s action “contrary to international law,” and in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. India has already rejected the charge.
Earlier on Friday, India slammed Canada’s remarks after Ottawa pulled out 41 diplomats.
“New Delhi rejects any attempt to portray the implementation of parity as a violation of international norms,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
“The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa,” the Ministry of External Affairs said.
On Canadian diplomatic interference in Indian affairs, Jaishankar said much of the information on the matter has not yet been made public.
“My sense is over a period of time more stuff will come out and people will understand why we had the kind of discomfort with many of them which we did,” he added.
