US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said that the White House is “deeply concerned” about the allegations made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the Indian government’s involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Blinken mentioned that the US wants to ensure accountability on the Indian part and called for both India and Canada to cooperate on this matter, claiming that it is “important” that the investigation runs its course and leads to the result.
“We want to see accountability. And it’s important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” Blinken told reporters in New York, where he was taking part in the UN General Assembly.
The US State Secretary states that Washington is in contact with both India and Canada. While India-US relations is warming up in recent times, Canada has been a close ally of US for a long time, media reports suggest.
According to media reports, Blinken was firm in not providing details about the diplomatic conversations that US had with both nations. He said that the investigation must move forward and be completed.
He said “I’m not going to characterize or otherwise speak to diplomatic conversations that we’ve have. We’ve been engaged directly with the Indian government as well. And again, I think the most productive thing that can happen now is to see this investigation move forward, be completed. And we would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well.”
Blinken said that the US considers this a grave and important matter and took “very, very seriously” incidents of “transnational repression”.
“More broadly, you’ve heard me speak to this. We are extremely vigilant about any instances of alleged transnational repression, something we take very, very seriously. And I think it’s important more broadly for the international system that any country that might consider engaging in such acts not do so. So, it’s something that we’re also focused on in a much broader way,” he said
When Blinken was asked about the engagement of US on this matter, he said that US is deeply concerned about the allegations that Trudeau raised against the Indian government. He also said “We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues, and not just consulting, coordinating with them on this issue.”
#WATCH | On the India-Canada row, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says "We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Canadian PM Trudeau has raised. We have been consulting very closely with our Canadian colleagues, and coordinating with them on this issue. From our… pic.twitter.com/jQA4ctG71v
— ANI (@ANI) September 22, 2023
He also said that it is important that the investigation by the Canadian government proceed as well as India’s cooperation with Canada on this issue.
“We would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well,” Blinken added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday, alleged India’s involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani extremist who is also a Canadian citizen earlier in June this year. This comment by Trudeau resulted in a diplomatic stand-off between the two nations.
The Ministry of External Affairs in India have called these allegations to be false and said that it is ‘absurd and motivated’.
On Friday, Trudeau said in a press conference that the Canadian government had provided intelligence to New Delhi weeks ago, that Indian government agents were potentially involved in the murder of a Khalistani terrorist in British Columbia.
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