Our Bureau
Washington
While the external affairs minister, Dr Jaishanker is in New York to attend UN general assembly session, all eyes are now on the meeting scheduled on Thursday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington amid the diplomatic row between India and Canada
While the meeting between the two top diplomats was scheduled much before the Canadian crisis broke out, the US has been urging India to cooperate in the Canadian investigation into the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia early this year.
While Dr Jaishanker has been in New York for almost a week now, highlighting the success of G20 and its championing of the global south at the UN, Jaishankar arrived in Washington DC on Wednesday evening.
“I don’t want to preview the conversations he (Blinken) will have in that meeting (with Jaishankar) , but as we’ve made clear, we’ve raised this; we have engaged with our Indian counterparts on this and encouraged them to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, and we continue to encourage them to cooperate,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has alleged that the Indian government was behind the killing of Nijjar, 45, outside a gurdwara in Surrey in British Columbia on June 18. India had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020.
India has rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official. India has also asked Canada to crack down on terrorists and anti-India elements operating from its soil and suspended visa services for Canadians.
