The bitterness between India and Canada is only increasing

Canadian PM Justine Trudeau has been a very angry man for the past few weeks. He came to New Delhi last week to attend the G20 summit, but his comments regarding foreign interference in domestic politics, a reference to genuine Indian concerns regarding Khalistani separatist forces operating from Canadian soil, ensured an extremely cold welcome for the delegation in India. In a strong message, Prime Minister Modi conveyed to his Canadian counterpart “concerns about continuing anti-India activities of extremist elements in Canada.

They are promoting secessionism and inciting violence against Indian diplomats, damaging diplomatic premises, and threatening the Indian community in Canada and their places of worship. The nexus of such forces with organised crime, drug syndicates and human trafficking should be a concern for Canada as well. It is essential for the two countries to cooperate in dealing with such threats.” Then, an invisible hand of destiny prevailed and the Canadian PM along with his entire delegation got stuck in New Delhi for 36 hours, due to a reported technical snag in his VVIP aircraft.

Canadian PM on return to his country and this week, accused India of choreographing the killing of a Khalistani terrorist in his country. Mr Trudeau’s statement however carefully replaced the word terrorist with citizen. This led to the escalation of the diplomatic standoff between India and Canada. New Delhi retorted “Such unsubstantiated allegations seek to shift the focus from Khalistani terrorists and extremists, who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The inaction of the Canadian Government on this matter has been a long-standing”

In diplomatic tit-for-tat, Canada first expelled a senior Indian diplomat while it faced similar retaliatory action back in New Delhi. This sets the stage for a chilly Indo-Canadian relationship, which has been going through its lows for some time now. India and Canada had been in active trade negotiations towards what was termed as Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement ( CEPA).

The CEPA was to provide the much-needed economic strength to frail partnerships, even though political concerns on either side were gnawing vigorously. Many sources pointed out that Canada had put a halt to the proposed CEPA negotiations a few months back, without providing any official word to India, New Delhi officials meanwhile, confirmed about the pause in the negotiations. 

India is one of the important trade partners for Canada albeit, a shadow compared to China which has taken a large chunk. In a significant move, Canada and China a few months back expelled each other’s senior diplomats, citing interference in each other’s domestic politics and policies. China and India have comparable migrant populations in Canada and this has led to allegations on both countries of using their migrant population to influence domestic politics.

 However, Canada has a softer attitude towards China and doesn’t go beyond lecturing the latter over its human rights violations. Canada in its Indo-Pacific policy released last year, recognised China as a key disruptive player in the Indo-Pacific and therefore advocates a balanced approach towards the dragon keeping its domestic interests in mind. It is noteworthy that Chinese state-run companies have stakes in the three largest mining companies in Canada, involved in critical metals exploration.

Even though there is frostiness in China Canada relationship, the recent chill coming in from New Delhi is most likely to make The Prime Minister scout for newer allies in Asia to save face with his domestic constituency.

(The writer is a policy analyst; views are personal)