FOREIGN Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, will hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. (ET) [12:30 p.m. PT] today (Thursday) to provide an update on the situation with India.

Meanwhile, CBC is reporting that a large number of Canadian diplomats left India overnight, after India refused to back down from its stand that Canada withdraw 41 diplomats from India by October 10 to make the two diplomatic contingents equal in size.

India said it had only 21 accredited diplomats in Canada and that Canada had 62 in its High Commission in New Delhi and four consulates in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Bengaluru.

India warned Canada that if its diplomats remained in the country, they would lose their diplomatic immunity from arrest and prosecution.

CBC said that Canadian officials claim that India’s arithmetic does not give an accurate picture of the respective sizes of the two diplomatic missions.

India’s claim to have only 21 accredited diplomats in Canada appears to conflict with the registry of accredited foreign representatives in Canada, which shows that India has 60 in Canada, CBC said.