Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he believed that New Delhi-Ottawa relations have experienced a ‘tonal shift’ after the US allegations of a plot to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported.
When asked about a change in India’s approach to Canada after the US allegations, Trudeau said “I think there is a beginning of an understanding that they can’t bluster their way through this and there is an openness to collaborating in a way that perhaps they were less open before.”
“There’s an understanding that maybe, maybe just churning out attacks against Canada isn’t going to make this problem go away,” he added.
Elaborating on his thoughts about the India-Canada ties, he said, “We don’t want to be in a situation of having a fight with India right now over this. We want to be working on that trade deal, we want to be advancing our Indo-Pacific strategy but it is foundational for Canada to stand up for people’s rights, people’s safety and for the rule of law and that’s what we are going to do.”
This comes after Prime Minister Modi broke his silence on the US plot against an Indian national and said New Delhi would look into it, adding that a ‘few incidents’ won’t derail India-US relations.
“If someone gives us any information, we would definitely look into it,” the PM told the Financial Times. “If a citizen of ours has done anything good or bad, we are ready to look into it. Our commitment is to the rule of law,” the Prime Minister added.
“Security and counter-terrorism co-operation has been a key component of our partnership…I don’t think it is appropriate to link a few incidents with diplomatic relations between the two countries,” he added.