S. Jaishankar: If diplomats are secure, India would start issuing visas to Canada

 S. Jaishankar: If diplomats are secure, India would start issuing visas to Canada

According to Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, India would start giving visas to people of Canada if it "sees progress" in the security of its diplomats there.

In September, India ceased offering visa services, claiming that "security threats" were impeding operations at its Canadian offices.

The killing of a leader of the Sikh separatist movement in Canada has sparked a dispute between the two nations.

The safety of diplomats is something Ottawa has previously said it takes "very seriously."

However, it hasn't addressed the particular claims made by India concerning threats against its ambassadors in Canada.

Relations between the nations deteriorated when Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said in September that his nation was looking into "credible allegations potentially linking" the Indian state to the murder of a Sikh leader.

India vehemently denied the accusations, calling them "absurd".

In June, two masked assailants shot and killed Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar in his car outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia. Nijjar was an outspoken supporter of Khalistan, or a separate Sikh nation, a delicate issue in India that resulted in a bloody rebellion in the 1980s.

Who was Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh in Canada?

Why do some Sikhs want their own state?

India expressed worries about the security of its diplomats in Canada even before tensions reached a high point, citing threats made against them by advocates of Khalistan. After a sign in front of a pro-Khalistan protest claimed that two Indian diplomats were responsible for murdering Nijjar, Canada's Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly tweeted in July that the nation takes its responsibility for the protection of diplomats "very seriously."

A spokeswoman for the Indian foreign ministry said that the country's high commission (embassy) and consulates in Canada had been given threats that "disrupted their normal operations" after the temporary suspension of visa offerings to Canadians was announced in September. A few of its ambassadors have "received threats on various social media platforms," the Canadian high commission said.

Last Monday, the foreign minister of Canada announced that 41 diplomats had departed for India. This happened after India requested that Canada evacuate dozens of its employees, threatening to revoke their immunity if they persisted.

This has been referred to be a "violation of international law" by Canadian authorities. Concerns over the decision have also been voiced by the US and the UK.

However, Mr. Jaishankar said on Sunday that India's emphasis on "maintaining two-way diplomatic parity" was in accordance with the terms of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

He said at a gathering that "in our scenario, both we invoked parity because we had concerns regarding continuous interference in our business by Canadian personnel," adding that the friendship between India and Canada was going throughout a "difficult phase".

"But I do want to say the drawbacks we have are with a certain segment of Canadian politics as well as the policies which flow from that," he said.

Although Canada's visa services are still available in India, it warned last week that "reduced staffing levels" after the departure of the ambassadors -- both Canada and India now have 21 diplomats each in the other nation -- may affect processing delays.

Last week, Mr. Trudeau said that millions of people in both nations were having a difficult time because of India's crackdown on diplomats.

According to the 2021 census, Canada has 1.4 million persons of Indian descent, more over half of them are Sikhs, or 3.7% of the total population. India also sends the most foreign students to Canada; in 2022, there were 320,000 Indian students abroad, or 40% of all foreign students.

Statistics from the Indian government show that around 80,000 Canadian visitors visited India in 2021, placing them fourth behind the US, Bangladesh, and the UK.