NEW DELHI: Concerns about Canadian officials meddling in New Delhi’s affairs prompted India to activate the parity clause in Canada’s diplomatic mission there, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Sunday. The minister of external affairs added that if there is improvement in the safety of Indian diplomats in Canada, India is probably going to start issuing visas to citizens of that country again. Following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s accusations last month of a “potential” Indian operative role in the June execution of Khalistani rebel Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the relationship between India and Canada became severely strained.A few days following Trudeau’s accusations, India requested that Ottawa reduce its diplomatic presence in the nation and said that it would be temporarily halting the issuing of visas to Canadian citizens. “We would like to resume issuing visas there if we see progress in the safety of our diplomats in Canada,” Jaishankar stated at an event in response to a query about relations between India and Canada.Regarding the reduction of Canada’s diplomatic representation in India, he stated that the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations clearly guarantees diplomatic parity. The Vienna Convention, the pertinent international law on issue, clearly provides for parity. In our situation, Jaishankar stated, “we invoked parity because we were concerned about ongoing interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel.” Forty-one Canadian ambassadors have already left India.In announcing the ambassadors’ return from India on Thursday, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said that New Delhi’s actions were “contrary to international law” and in breach of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. India has already denied the accusation. According to Jaishankar, the current state of relations between Canada and India is challenging. He also mentioned that certain aspects of Canadian politics are problematic for India.
