NEW DELHI, Oct 3: India has asked Canada to recall 41 of its diplomats from the country by October 10, news reported today.
Neither India nor Canada reacted to the report that came 12 days after New Delhi asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in India.
Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41, the report said.
The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
India rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.
On September 21, India asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country as relations between the two countries plunged to an all-time low following Ottawa’s allegations against New Delhi.
Announcing the measure, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said the size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada and that there should be a “parity in strength and rank equivalence” in the mutual presence.
“We have informed the Canadian government that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in our mutual diplomatic presence. Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada. The details of this are being worked out,” Bagchi had said.
India also announced temporarily suspending issuance of visas to Canadian citizens.
The India-Canada ties were reeling under some strain for the last few months in view of increasing activities of the pro-Khalistani elements in the North American country.
India says the Trudeau Government is not addressing its genuine concerns.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told journalists in Washington last week that the governments of India and Canada will have to talk to each other and see how they resolve their differences over the issue and underlined that the larger issue of “permissiveness” must be flagged and addressed. (PTI)
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