US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the US has engaged immediately with the Indian authorities on the difficulty and the most efficient factor could be the completion of this investigation.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated America is deeply concerned about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of India’s potential involvement within the killing of a Sikh separatist and that it could be vital that New Delhi works with Ottawa on this investigation.
Speaking at a press convention right here on Friday, Blinken stated the US has engaged immediately with the Indian authorities on the difficulty and the most efficient factor could be the completion of this investigation.
Tensions flared between India and Canada early this week following Trudeau’s explosive allegations of the “potential” involvement of Indian brokers within the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia on June 18. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.
India angrily rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”, and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat transfer to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
Responding to a query on Trudeau’s allegations against India, Blinken stated, “Let me say a few things about this. First, we are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised.”
“We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues, and not just consulting, coordinating with them on this issue. And from our perspective, it is critical that the Canadian investigation proceeds and it would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation.
“We need to see accountability and it is vital that the investigation runs its course and results in that consequence,” he said.
Blinken was also asked about reports that President Joe Biden “personally” raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I’m not going to characterise or in any other case communicate to diplomatic conversations that we now have.
“We’ve been engaged directly with the Indian government as well. And again, I think the most productive thing that can happen now is to see this investigation move forward (and) be completed. And we would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” the Secretary of State stated.
He stated the US is “extremely vigilant about any instances of alleged transnational repression” and takes them “very, very seriously”.
“And I think it’s important more broadly for the international system that any country that might consider engaging in such acts (does) not do so. So it’s something that we’re also focused on in a much broader way,” Blinken stated.
Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was certainly one of India’s most-wanted terrorists who carried a money reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head. He was shot useless outdoors a gurdwara in Surrey.
While Canada hasn’t but supplied any public proof to again its claims, a media report citing Canadian authorities sources stated that Ottawa’s allegations are based mostly on each human and alerts intelligence and inputs from an ally the Five Eye intelligence community.
The Five Eyes community is an intelligence alliance consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The Canadian authorities has amassed each human and alerts intelligence in a months-long investigation of the Sikh man’s dying that has infected relations with India, CBC News, a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, reported on Thursday quoting sources.
That intelligence contains communications involving Indian officers themselves, together with Indian diplomats current in Canada, in keeping with Canadian authorities sources.
Prime Minister Trudeau on Thursday stated Canada is just not seeking to “provoke or cause problems” with India as he urged New Delhi to take the matter “extremely seriously” and work with Ottawa to “uncover the truth”.
India requested Canada to come back down onerous on terrorists and anti-India parts working from its soil and suspended visa companies for Canadians.
India additionally requested Canada to downsize its diplomatic workers within the nation, arguing that there needs to be parity in energy and rank equivalence within the mutual diplomatic presence. The measurement of Canadian diplomatic workers in India is bigger than what New Delhi has in Canada.
The India-Canada ties had been reeling underneath some pressure for the previous couple of months in view of accelerating actions of the pro-Khalistani parts within the North American nation. India believes the Trudeau authorities is just not addressing its real issues.
