- Thursday, February 27, 2025
Sri Lankan foreign minister Ali Sabry said in an interview that he was not surprised by the Canadian leader’s charges against India saying he keeps making “outrageous and substantiated allegations”.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA on Monday (25) found an ally in its ongoing diplomatic tussle with Canada as Ali Sabry, foreign minister of its maritime neighbour Sri Lanka, reacted to the row saying terrorists have found safe haven in the North American nation and that prime minister Justin Trudeau came out with outrageous allegations without any evidence.
Speaking exclusively to Asian News International, Sabry said he was “not surprised” by the Canadian premier’s remarks saying the latter keeps making “outrageous and substantiated allegations”.
“Some of the terrorists have found safe haven in Canada. The Canadian PM has this way of just coming out with some outrageous allegations without any supporting proof. The same thing they did for Sri Lanka, a terrible, total lie about saying that Sri Lanka had a genocide. Everybody knows there was no genocide in our country,” the Lankan minister, who also lauded India’s fast economic growth in the interview, added.
On September 18, Trudeau alleged involvement of Indian agents in the elimination of Khalistan separatist leader and Khalistan Tiger Force chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada’s Surrey. The 45-year-old slain leader was a designated terrorist in India.
New Delhi hit back at Trudeau’s remarks strongly, calling the allegations “absurd and motivated”.
Sabry also took on the Canadian prime minister over his controversial felicitation of a Nazi war veteran in his country’s parliament last week that caused an uproar both inside Canada and abroad, including earning a backlash from Russia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present in the Canadian parliament at the time.
“I saw yesterday he had gone and given a rousing welcome to somebody who has associated with the Nazis in the past during the Second World War. So, this is questionable and we have dealt with it in the past. I am not surprised that sometimes PM Trudeau comes out with outrageous and substantiated allegations,” Sabry said.
The Lankan minister alleged that Trudeau’s “genocide” remarks had affected his country’s ties with Canada.
“That has actually affected our relationship. The foreign ministry has a different take on that. Ministry of Global Affairs has very clearly said that Sri Lanka did not go through a genocide, whereas PM Trudeau as a politician stands up and says that genocide had taken place. That itself is contradictory to each other. That doesn’t help,” he told the news outlet and advised Trudeau not to interfere in the internal matters of a sovereign country.
“I don’t think anyone should poke their nose into other countries and tell as to how we should govern our country. We love our country more than anyone else. That’s why we are in our country. We are not very happy about that statement at all. Indian Ocean identity is very important and we need to strengthen the regional architecture. We have to look after our region. We need to work together. That’s how we can create a peaceful environment. We should not be dictated by anyone else as to how we should conduct our affairs,” he added.
In May, Sri Lanka summoned the Canadian high commissioner in Colombo to register a strong protest over Trudeau’s “Tamil genocide” remark made on the 14th anniversary of the end of the violent civil war in the South Asian island-nation.
The conflict, which had raged for more than three decades, came to an end on May 18, 2009, with the Sri Lankan military killing Velupillai Prabhakaran, chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE that fought for an independent Tamil state in the northeast of Sri Lanka.
“Our thoughts are with the victims, survivors, and their loved ones, who continue to live with the pain caused by this senseless violence,” Trudeau said.
“The stories of Tamil-Canadians affected by the conflict — including many I have met over the years in communities across the country — serve as an enduring reminder that human rights, peace, and democracy cannot be taken for granted,” he added.
The ministry of foreign affairs of Sri Lanka rejected the Canadian premier’s statements, saying they contained outrageous claims of genocide related to past conflicts on the island-nation’s soil.
The ministry later summoned Canadian high commissioner in Colombo (and also to the Maldives) Eric Walsh and registered a strong protest over the Canadian premier’s remarks.
(With PTI inputs)
