India-Canada Row: Justin Trudeau to attend virtual G20 summit amidst diplomatic standoff

Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend the virtual G20 Leaders’ Summit. The development comes amidst a diplomatic standoff between India and Canada over Trudeau’s allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India.

According to the schedule released by the Canadian Prime Minister’s officer for Wednesday, the PM will attend the meeting virtually that is being hosted by India. Trudeau keeps alleging Indian agents’ involvement in Nijjar’s killing. The accusation has deteriorated relations between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the G20 Virtual Summit gets underway today at 5:30 pm. The summit will witness a major gathering of world leaders. Leaders of all G20 members, including the Chair of the African Union, as well as nine guest countries and heads of 11 international organisations, have been invited. The virtual summit will address key issues, select outcomes and review developments that have taken place since the conclusion of the New Delhi G20 Summit in September.

Earlier, the Speaker of the Canadian Senate Raymonde Gagne skipped the Presiding Officers’ Summit of Parliaments of G20 nations that began in Delhi on October 12. On November 12, Justin Trudeau reaffirmed his allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist in India.

Trudeau accused New Delhi of violating the Vienna Convention by “kicking out” 40 diplomats at a time when his country had reached out to the former and other global partners to get to the bottom of the murder.

However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) responded by saying that no international norms were violated in India, seeking parity in the mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa. On November 16, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar responded to Trueadu’s claim emphasising that the Canadian side was yet to provide evidence to back its claims on the Nijjar killing.

Following the G20 Leaders’ Summit that took place here in the national capital on September 9-10 this year, considerable progress on major G20 priorities as well as outcomes have been made. For instance, the G20 consensus on tripling renewable energy capacity globally by 2030 and doubling the global rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, which was committed to by G20 Leaders in Delhi for the first time, are the key expected outcomes of COP28.

With inputs from ANI.