‘Actions Consistent with Vienna Convention’: India After Canada Rues Ouster of 41 Diplomats

Canada said Thursday it had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid the diplomatic fallout between the two countries over the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. “As of now, I can confirm that India has formally conveyed its plan to unethically remove diplomatic immunities for all but 21 Canadian diplomats and dependents in Delhi by October 20,” Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said during a news conference.

“This means 41 Canadian diplomats and their 42 dependents were in danger of having immunity stripped on an arbitrary date and this would put their personal safety at risk,” she said. Joly added that India’s decision will impact the levels of services to Consulates in both countries. “Unfortunately, we have to put a pause on all in-person services in our Consulates in Chandigarh, in Mumbai and in Bangalore,” she added.

India-Canada ties plunged last month after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Indian government of having a link to Nijjar’s killing on Canadian soil. These allegations, which New Delhi has strongly denied, resulted in tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats on both sides.

The Indian government has called the Canadian accusations over the killing “absurd” and advised its nationals not to travel to certain Canadian regions in the wake of the growing anti-Indian activities. New Delhi also temporarily stopped processing visa applications in Canada and requested parity in diplomatic staff.

Joly said New Delhi planned to revoke diplomatic immunity for all but 21 of Canada’s diplomats and their families by Friday. She said Canada did not plan to retaliate in kind and would continue to engage with India. In the statement on Thursday, Ottawa also accused New Delhi of breaking the diplomatic norm after the ouster of its diplomats.

New Delhi has responded strongly to these accusations saying, “The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa.” “We have been engaged with the Canadian side on this over the last month in order to work out the details and modalities of its implementation,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement.

Rejecting the attempt to portray the implementation of parity as a violation of international norms, Bagchi said India’s actions are fully consistent with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. As per this article, “In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission.”

The India-Canada row has its roots in the June killing of Nijjar who was shot dead by two masked assailants in the parking lot of a Sikh temple near Vancouver. The 45-year-old Sikh separatist, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a Canadian citizen in 2015, was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.

After Canada asked India to cooperate in the probe of the killing, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar last month said in New York that his country would be willing to examine any evidence presented by Canada. Jaishankar also raised the point of continued Canadian inaction following attacks on Indian consulates in the country.

“We have actually been badgering the Canadians. We’ve given them loads of information about organized crime leadership which operates out of Canada,” Jaishankar said, referring to Sikh separatists.  “We have a situation where actually our diplomats are threatened, our consulates have been attacked and often comments are made (that are) interference in our politics,” he said.

(With agency inputs)