- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Friday (29) broke silence on New Delhi suspending issuing visas to Canadian citizens in the wake of a diplomatic spat between his government with that of Canada over the murder of a Khalistan terrorist leader in British Columbia in June.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India of being involved in the elimination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on his country’s soil at which New Delhi sharply hit back, calling the charges “absurd” and “motivated”. Both countries also expelled each other’s senior diplomats and India also suspended its visa services for Canadian citizens.
While the development caused inconvenience to many in Canada planning to travel to India for varying reasons, Jaishankar said in the US that it was necessary alleging violence on Indian diplomats and consulates in Canada.
Speaking at a discussion at the prestigious Hudson Institute in Washington DC, Jaishankar said the fact that the Indian diplomats were being intimidated “compelled” him to suspend the visa operations for the time being.
“Today, I am actually in a situation where my diplomats in Canada are unsafe going to the embassy or to the consulates. They are publicly intimidated. And that actually has compelled me to temporarily suspend visa operations in Canada, ” he was quoted as saying by reports.
The foreign minister also said that the governments of India and Canada would engage and see how they resolve the ongoing differences over the killing of Nijjar.
He also met US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Washington on Friday and said he had raised the Canada issue with the latter. However, the read-out issued by the US state department did not mention it.
On Tuesday (26), Jaishankar said his government has told its Canadian counterpart that it was open to looking into any “specific” or “relevant” information it provides on assassination.
