Canada has decided to withdraw 41 diplomats from India, sparking a diplomatic dispute centered around the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani terrorist.
On Friday, India strongly criticized Canada's statements regarding this matter, rejecting any attempts to characterize the move towards diplomatic parity as a breach of international norms. This friction emerged after Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly revealed that India had allegedly threatened to unilaterally revoke the official status of Canadian diplomats if they didn't depart by a specified deadline. Joly argued that this action was "unreasonable and unprecedented" and contended that it violated the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.
The Ministry of External Affairs in India responded by emphasizing that the current state of bilateral relations, coupled with the higher number of Canadian diplomats stationed in India and their perceived meddling in India's internal affairs, justified the pursuit of mutual diplomatic parity in both New Delhi and Ottawa. The Indian government maintained that it had been collaborating with Canada over the past month to establish the practicalities and specifics of implementing this diplomatic adjustment.
Furthermore, India underlined that its actions align with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This article allows the receiving state to request that the size of a foreign mission align with what it considers reasonable and normal, taking into account the prevailing conditions and the mission's particular needs. As a result, the Indian government expressed its strong opposition to any characterization of this pursuit of diplomatic parity as a violation of international norms.
This diplomatic rift between India and Canada initially unfolded when India requested that Canada downsize its diplomatic presence in response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's assertions regarding credible evidence linking Indian agents to the murder of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. Najjar was fatally shot outside a gurdwara in a Vancouver suburb. India has vehemently dismissed Trudeau's suspicions of Indian involvement in Nijjar's murder as unfounded.
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