A banner with the image of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar is seen at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple, the site of his assassination in June 2023, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, on September 20, 2023. Portal/Chris Helgren acquires license rights
- The USA and Great Britain are courting India as a counterweight to China
- Canada was forced to reveal information while the media prepared stories
- Canada’s secret service remains secret because of murder investigations
OTTAWA, Sept 20 (Portal) – Canada said this week it had intelligence that may link Indian government agents to the killing of a separatist Sikh leader, news that typically causes uproar among Democratic allies. Not this time.
India is being courted by the United States and others as a counterweight to China, and Trudeau’s rare attack just days after the G20 summit in New Delhi puts Western nations in a difficult position.
“India is important in Western calculations to counterbalance China, but Canada is not,” said Stephanie Carvin, a professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa.
“This really puts Canada on the sidelines compared to all other Western countries,” she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Canada is “actively investigating credible allegations” that Indian agents may have been involved in the killing of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
By then, Ottawa had already discussed the matter with key allies such as the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The results so far have been muted. Britain refused to publicly criticize India and said bilateral trade talks would continue as planned. In fact, India was not mentioned by name in a statement by Secretary of State James Cleverly on the affair.
Britain is in a difficult position, caught between support for Canada and hostility against India, a country it wants to see as a trading partner and ally in the fight against China, said Chietigj Bajpaee, India expert at the Chatham House think tank in London .
“Until there is definitive evidence of India’s involvement, I think the UK response is likely to remain muted,” he said. A free trade agreement would be a “major political victory” for both India and Britain, Bajpaee said.
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‘WAITING GAME’
White House national security adviser John Kirby said the United States was “deeply concerned” and encouraged Indian officials to cooperate with any investigation. India rejects the idea that it was involved in the murder.
The Washington Post reported that Trudeau pushed for a joint statement against India at the G20 summit in New Delhi last week, which was rejected by the United States and others.
Kirby said: “Any reports that we have rejected Canada in any way are false and we will continue to coordinate and consult with them on this.”
The muted response to Trudeau’s allegations is evident when compared to the uproar after Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by a nerve agent in England in 2018. Britain, the United States, Canada and others have thrown out more than 100 Russian diplomats to punish Moscow for an attack it has always denied.
“Our Five Eyes partners are understandably hesitant to really commit to this, as everyone is interested in expanding ties with India given the ongoing tensions with China,” said Wesley Wark of the Center for International Governance Innovation think tank in Waterloo, Ontario.
“It’s a bit of a waiting game. “If the Canadians present very solid evidence of the Indian state’s egregious involvement in an assassination attempt, I think we will hear more support from our allies,” he said.
With allies unwilling to consider joint condemnation of India, Canada’s options now appear limited, at least until it can provide irrefutable evidence.
“If we don’t get our allies to support this publicly or privately, Canada won’t be able to do much to move India,” said Richard Fadden, former head of Canadian intelligence.
“And I think the biggest thing we can strive for in the short or medium term is to get India to not do something like this again,” he told CTV.
Canadian government sources said they would have preferred to wait longer to comment, but said they had to act because some domestic media outlets were close to breaking the story.
Trudeau “would never have spoken out loud if we hadn’t compiled the information into a factual database,” a source said, adding that they hoped to get more information soon.
Canada has not released its intelligence information because a murder investigation is ongoing, the senior source said.
“As India faces a global opportunity, it is imperative that they handle it responsibly – in their own interest,” the source said.
Reporting by Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren; additional reporting by Andrew MacAskill in London; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
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