'Canada not looking to escalate situation with India': Justin Trudeau

Amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Canada and India, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that “Canada is not looking to escalate the situation with India.”

“Will continue to engage responsibly and constructively with New Delhi. We want to be on the ground in India to help the Canadian families there,” he added, as reported by Reuters.

Trudeau’s statement comes hours after a report by The Financial Times indicated that India has given a deadline to Canada to repatriate around 40 diplomats by 10 October and said that it would revoke their diplomatic immunity if they remained after the given date.

Neither India nor Canada reacted to the report that came 12 days after New Delhi asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in India.

Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41, the report said.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Trudeau’s allegations of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.

India rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.

Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.

With inputs from agencies