Posted on 09/23/2023 6:41:02 PM PDT by Jyotishi
New York -- The US is “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India on the killing of a Khalistani separatist in Canada, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said and Washington was "closely coordinating" with Ottawa on the issue and wants to see "accountability" in the case.
Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation.
“Let me say a few things about this. First, we are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised,” the top US diplomat said in response to a question on Trudeau's allegations against India.
Trudeau said in the Canadian Parliament earlier this week that “Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing” of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia.
“We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues -- and not just consulting, coordinating with them -- on this issue. And from our perspective, it is critical that the Canadian investigation proceed, and it would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability, and it's important that the investigation run its course and lead to that result,” Blinken said.
The top US diplomat was also asked about reports that President Joe Biden brought the issue up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi “personally”. “I'm not going to characterise or otherwise speak to diplomatic conversations that we have,” Blinken said.
“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 and be completed. And we would hope that our Indian friends would cooperate with that investigation as well.
“More broadly -- and 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.”
Nijjar, 45, the chief of the banned Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), was one of India's most-wanted terrorists who carried a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head and was shot dead outside a gurdwara in Surrey in the western Canadian province of British Columbia on June 18.
Tensions flared between India and Canada early this week following Trudeau's explosive allegations.
India angrily 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 over the case.
While Canada hasn't yet provided any public evidence to back its claims, a media report citing Canadian government sources said that Ottawa's allegations are based on both human and signals intelligence and inputs from an ally the Five Eye intelligence network.
The Five Eyes network is an intelligence alliance consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The Canadian government has amassed both human and signals intelligence in a months-long investigation of the Sikh man's death that has inflamed relations with India, CBC News, a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, reported on Thursday quoting sources.
That intelligence includes communications involving Indian officials themselves, including Indian diplomats present in Canada, according to Canadian government sources.
Prime Minister Trudeau on Thursday said Canada is not looking to "provoke or cause problems" with India as he urged New Delhi to take the matter "extremely seriously" and work with Ottawa to "uncover the truth".
India asked Canada to come down hard on terrorists and anti-India elements operating from its soil and suspended visa services for Canadians.
India also asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic staff in the country, arguing that there should be parity in strength and rank equivalence in the mutual diplomatic presence. The size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada.
The India-Canada ties had been reeling under some strain for the last few months in view of increasing activities of the pro-Khalistani elements in the North American country. India believes the Trudeau government is not addressing its genuine concerns.
What a maroon!
They really want us to believe that POTUS Potato had a coherent conversation with Modi about the allegation?
“New York — The US is “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India”
And we should be, as India is TOTALLY FED UP with the Neocons, and this baseless claim will just about be the end of any Indian cooperation with the West.
Canada is lead by Pee Wee Herman.
The United States is lead by Grandpa Simpson.
What could possibly go wrong?
Bingo.
DC... is deeply concerned about extrajudicial governmental killing.
And Blinken delivered the line with a straight face.
This is absolutely none of our business - we have our own interests in India and should not get dragged into whatever nonsense Castro Junior is getting into up north.
They tried to get Erdogan out in Turkey this year and failed I guess Modi is worth a shot in next year’s elections.
The opposition parties formed a union recently led by the Congress Party of Rahul Gandhi.
Trudeau may be batting for the NWO with this allegation trolling for some reaction from India that will be demonized like Russia’s response to years of Ukrainian provocation that started with the US backed 2014 coup in Ukraine.
So India kills a terrorist leader who was coordinating with Pakistan to commit acts of terror in India and the Biden and the Trudeau regime are ‘deeply concerned’ ?
Typical of true-dope: willing to tear his nation’s reputation down to protect a terrorist.
We were once among the most respected and admired lands on earth.
Now we are a really pathetic joke.
Thanks, Justine, and your worthless father too. I hope he’s enjoying his warm eternity. ‘Twould be nice if you could join him, the sooner the batter.
Should be more concerned with keeping India within our sphere of influence since we will need their support against China....
I guess that covers it.
With all that going on I bet he hasn't had time to seriously focus, actively pursue and closely coordinate taking a dump.
What a guy.
So are they concerned about Trudeau and his allegations, that he made them.
Or are they concerned that India is responsible or something.
The article isn’t clear what the US is concerned about.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar ? Must be French Canadian.
I’m not sure what lil Fidel is up to here, but I do know I would rather be on the side of the Indians than a Canada led by Trudeau.
But then, I am pretty sure I do not want to be on the side of any government led by Biden & his puppet masters.
Color me torn.
That's an "I"-country. Can we keep this simple and start with the "A"s. I've forgotten are we on the side of Azerbaijan fighting against the despised Armenian's. Or is it the other way around. Oh that's right Azerbaijan has been supporting Putin so we need a color revolution there. Are we done with Afghanistan yet? What about Argentina and Algeria?
And then there is "B" which gets us to Brazil and BRICS. We surely can get a war going there.
While I realize that we have vital interests to defend in India, it's going to take us a while to deal with our more pressing problems.
Maybe, but we seem to be doing a good job of getting Turkei out of NATO.
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