Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in Biarritz.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slammed the Modi government after India expelled six diplomats of the country.
India's response came after the Canadian government shared with the Ministry of External Affairs that the Indian High Commissioner to Canada was a 'person of interest' in an investigation going on in the country.
Speaking to media after the fallout, Justin Trudeau said, "I've spoken directly with Prime Minister Modi. We have engaged with intelligence counterparts, and unfortunately, every step of the way, both after I made the statement in the House of Commons last September and till now, the response of the Indian government has been to deny, to obfuscate, to attack me personally and the integrity of the government of Canada and its officials and its police agencies."
Trudeau acknowledged that it was not a "choice that Canada made to create a chill in Canada-India relations".
The 52-year-old also said Canada considers India one of the most important democracies of the world and stressed on the fact that when geopolitical tensions are increasing around the world, "democracies have to stick together".
He said this is exactly why the first thing Canada did when investigative agencies learnt that 'India was possibly if not probably, behind (Hardeep Singh) Nijjar's killing', was to tell India, "we know this has happened, work with us to fix this."
"Killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil is not something that we can ignore as a country," Trudeau also asserted.
Trudeau also said that while the Canadian investigating agencies tried to reach their counterparts in India, the latter rejected their advances and "attempts to find some way through this".
"And that brought us to this point of having to disrupt the chain of operations that go from Indian diplomats here in Canada to criminal organizations to direct violent impacts on Canadians right across this country," the Canadian PM concluded.