Forty-one of the 62 Canadian diplomats in India have left the country, fearing that they would be stripped of their diplomatic immunity, Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly told a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
“Canada confirms that India formally communicated its plan to remove immunities unilaterally for all but 21 Canadian diplomats and dependents in New Delhi by October 20, 2023. This means 41 Canadian diplomats and their 42 dependents were in danger of having immunities stripped. Given the security implications of India’s actions on these Canadian diplomats and their families, Canada has facilitated their safe departure from India,” said a joint statement by Joly and Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller.
The Canadian statement said that Ottawa won’t “reciprocate” India’s action.
The foreign minister said that Canadian authorities would continue to pursue a dialogue with India on the matter in coming days.
She also reckoned that the “mass expulsion” of Canadian diplomats would affect Canadian consular services in India.
“We will now be forced to pause temporarily all in-person services at Consulates, until further notice,” stated Joly.
The in-person consular services are available at three Indian cities through local Canadian missions—Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai.
The development marks an unprecedented escalation in the ongoing diplomatic row between India and Canada, which was triggered after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Canadian Parliament last month that his government was pursuing “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen designated as a terrorist in India.
Nijjar, who was shot dead by unidentified men in June, was a Sikh temple leader in Surrey, British Columbia. He was accused of being a proponent of Khalistan movement, which advocates a separate state of Sikhs in India.
The allegations have been flatly rejected by Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar.
Canada Shared Information with India: Joly
At the press conference on Thursday, Joly refused to directly address the question if the Canadian government have shared any information with Indian authorities linking New Delhi’s “agents” to Nijjar’s killing.
She said that Indian officials have been “made aware” of these allegations in conversations with their Canadian counterparts in previous months. However, she refused to specify if any proof has been shared with India.
India’s Demand for ‘Parity’
The withdrawal of Canadian diplomats follows New Delhi’s demand calling for “parity” in mutual diplomatic presence between the two countries.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a press briefing last month that Ottawa must maintain a "parity in strength and rank equivalence in our diplomatic in mutual diplomatic presence".
"Their numbers here are very much higher than ours in Canada," he had stated. New Delhi has said that its demand are in line with the Vienna Convention governing consular relations among countries.
India has also said that one of the reasons behind seeking parity is "Canadian diplomatic interference in our internal affairs".
New Delhi accuses Canada of not acting against pro-Khalistan separatists in the country, despite repeated requests by New Delhi ongoing the current diplomatic row started last month.