It Is "Extremely Important" For Canada To Engage With India : Justin Trudeau

Despite the “credible allegations” that Canada has put forward regarding the “potential” involvement of Indian officials in the murder of Pro-Khalisthan leader Hardeep Singh Najjar, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes that it is “extremely important” for Canada and its allies “constructively and seriously” engage with India adhering to the country”s growing global influence, Mr. Trudeau said in press conference at Montreal on Thursday.

“India is a growing economic power and important geopolitical player. And as we presented with our Indo-Pacific strategy, just last year, we are very serious about building closer ties with India”, he said to reporters as quoted by National Post.

“At the same time, obviously, as a rule of law country, we need to emphasize that India needs to work with Canada to ensure that we get the full facts of this matter”, Mr. Trudeau added.

According to him, he had talked about the concerns to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the side-line of G20 Summit that happened in India and India”s security officials were informed about this.

He also prompted Indian government to collaborate with Canada to get “in to the bottom of this matter”.

On September 18, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made allegation against India in the House Of Commons that Canada is looking after a  “credible allegations” of the involvement of Indian officials in the murder of the Khalisthan leader.

Mr. Trudeau said he has assurance from US that Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, would discuss about Canada”s public allegation of India with his counter part, S. Jaishankar.

“The Americans have been with us in speaking to Indian government about how important it is that they be involved in following up on the credible allegations that agents of the Indian government killed a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil”, said Mr. Trudeau.

Before the Canadian Prime Minister”s “credible” allegations, both the countries were already trading on thin ice and now the grounding between the countries seems to dwindle with sacking of the diplomats and the high tension looming around.

With inputs from National Post.