FOREIGN Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced on Thursday that 41 Canadian diplomats and their 42 dependents have now left India as their diplomatic immunity ends on October 20.
Canada now has only 21 diplomats at its High Commission in New Delhi and four consulates in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
Joly said Canada will not retaliate although India’s actions are a violation of international law.
“A unilateral revocation of diplomatic privileges and immunities is contrary to international law. It is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” she said, adding: “And threatening to do so is unreasonable and escalatory.”
In reply to questions from journalists, Joly said that “there were meetings and information was shared” with Indian officials regarding the alleged involvement of Indian agents in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey.
Joly said: “Indian officials were made aware of the credible allegations and so based on that, India has decided to take their own decisions.”
She pointed out that the murder of a Canadian on our soil was a fundamental violation of the sovereignty of our country and that is why Canada asked for India’s cooperation in the investigation.
Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said it was unfortunate that India had suspended issuing of visas to Canadians but insisted that Canada will not compromise on its principles.
He said that Canada will continue to accept and process all immigration applications from India. Canadian consular staff will now focus on work that can’t be moved out of India.
Miller later tweeted: “Processing times will inevitably be impacted by this unacceptable and unilateral decision by the Government of India, but we will strive to minimize the impact on people looking to come to Canada.”
MEANWHILE, Australia’s ABC reports that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director general Mike Burgess said that he would have “no reason to dispute what the Canadian government has said” in the matter of a possible link between the Indian government and the killing of a Canadian citizen.
“There’s no doubt any allegation of any country being accused of carrying out an execution of a citizen in that country, it’s a serious allegation, and something that we don’t do and something that nations should not do,” he told ABC in California at a gathering of Five Eyes intelligence partners, of which Australia and Canada are both members.
MORE TO COME
