India and Canada to Restore Diplomatic Services Nearly Two Years After Killing of Sikh Separatist
The announcement was made after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, met Tuesday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. The leaders agreed to designate new high commissioners with a view to returning to regular services to citizens and businesses in both countries, a statement from Carney's office said. High commissioners are senior diplomats representing their country's interests and fostering relationships with the host nation. Modi and Carney reiterated the importance of a bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and a commitment to the principle of territorial sovereignty, according to the statement. They also discussed further collaboration in several sectors, including technology, digital transition, food security, and critical minerals. Meanwhile, India's foreign ministry underscored the importance of restarting senior ministerial engagements to rebuild trust and bring momentum to the relationship.
Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau, shocked the world in September 2023 after announcing in Parliament there were 'credible allegations' about India's link to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver. New Delhi vehemently denied the allegations and accused Trudeau's government of harboring extremists. The Indian government had declared Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 under a law meant to suppress dissent. The Sikh independence advocate was a prominent member of the Khalistan movement, banned in India, to create an independent Sikh homeland. He was seen as a human rights activist by Sikh organizations.
Ties between the two countries continued to worsen, and in October, India expelled Canadian diplomats and withdrew its high commissioner and other officials from Canada. Ottawa retaliated by dismissing Indian diplomats and accusing the Indian government of an 'intensifying campaign' against Canadian citizens–a charge New Delhi denied. India's anxieties about Sikh separatist groups have long strained its relationship with Canada, where some 2 percent of the population is Sikh.
Modi Calls Trump. As Trump abruptly left the G7 summit, Modi had a detailed phone conversation with the US president and shared India's military response against Pakistan last month following the killings of 26 innocent people, mostly Hindu men, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said. In recent weeks, Trump had claimed to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and offered trade concessions in part to make the nuclear-armed rivals reach an agreement after shooting at each other for days, which was checkmated by New Delhi. Trump had also proposed mediation over Kashmir.
In a statement, Misri said Modi clarified to Trump that India had 'never in the past accepted nor would it encourage in the future a third-party mediation' over the simmering dispute of Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan in its entirety. Misri said Modi made it clear to Trump that during multiple talks held between New Delhi and Washington senior officials amid the ongoing military conflict, there was no mention of a trade deal or the US mediation over Kashmir. 'The talks to stop military actions were held directly between the military leaders of India and Pakistan through existing channels,' Misri said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Arab News
At US reception, Pakistan army chief vows ‘crushing response' to Indian aggression — Bloomberg
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's army chief has accused India of continuing to 'create instability in the region' and warned that any aggression from New Delhi would be met with a 'crushing response,' Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing statements shared by Pakistani military officials. The remarks come less than three months after Pakistan and India fought their deadliest confrontation in decades — a four-day armed conflict in May that saw air, drone, and missile strikes, as well as artillery and small arms fire along their shared border. The clash was triggered by an April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in which gunmen killed 26 civilians. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for orchestrating the assault, an allegation Pakistan has denied. 'India is still attempting to create instability in the region,' General Asim Munir said on Friday at a dinner with members of the Pakistani diaspora in Florida, during his second visit to the US in less than two months, according to the Bloomberg report, which quoted unnamed military officials. 'Pakistan has made it clear that any Indian aggression will be met with a crushing response.' Pakistan's military released details of Munir's US speech after Indian news website ThePrint reported contentious excerpts, claiming the general had said Pakistan would target any dam India builds on the Indus River with multiple missiles and warned of the risk of nuclear conflict. ThePrint cited unidentified participants at the event and said guests were barred from carrying phones or recording devices. In response, India's Ministry of External Affairs on Monday accused Pakistan of a history of 'nuclear sabre-rattling' and questioned the credibility of its nuclear command and control. The ministry also said the comments had been made from a 'friendly third country' and insisted India would not succumb to 'nuclear blackmail.' Relations between the two neighbors — who have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since partition in 1947 — remain tense. Pakistan has in recent months moved closer to President Donald Trump, while India's relations with Washington have cooled, Bloomberg said. Munir praised Trump for helping end the May hostilities, saying: 'Pakistan is deeply thankful to President Trump, whose strategic leadership not only averted a war between India and Pakistan but also helped stop many ongoing global conflicts.' Indian officials have denied the US leader played any such role. Over the weekend, India's air force chief said its military had shot down at least five Pakistani fighter jets during the May confrontation, offering new details on the scale of the damage. Pakistan denied any of its aircraft had been hit and says it had downed at least five Indian planes.
Al Arabiya
5 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
India shuts unit at country's largest nuclear power plant
India has shut a unit at its Kudankulam nuclear reactor, the largest in the country, for scheduled maintenance last week, according to an outage report, possibly spiking power prices for southern regions. The 1,000 megawatt (MW) Unit 1 at Kudankulam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu was shut on August 3, the Central Electricity Authority, the country's power advisory body, said in a report dated August 7. Confirming that one unit of Kudankulam is under maintenance, a senior official with Tamil Nadu Distribution and Generation Company said the state might have to tap market sources if the need for additional demand arises. The official from the state government did not want to be identified as India's nuclear facilities are controlled by the federal government. Earlier, the Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd (KSEBL) filed a petition with the state's electricity regulator, saying the shutdown is expected to worsen the peak-hour electricity shortages in some southern states, driving up short-term power procurement costs. The 65-day outage, coupled with low volumes on power exchanges and increased demand from neighboring states, had forced it to procure 300 MW of peak-hour power at rates as high as 9.18 rupees ($0.1048) per unit of electricity. The utility finalized purchases from Tata Power at 8.75 rupees per unit and Greenko Energies at 9.18 rupees per unit for the slot between 07:00 PM IST and 00:00 AM IST slot throughout August, the petition showed. 'The projected peak-hour deficit of around 600 MW in August 2025 may worsen due to the scheduled refueling outage of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant,' KSEBL said. Kerala's electricity regulator approved the emergency procurement but flagged concerns over the high tariffs. The other 1,000 MW unit 2 at Kudankulam is operating normally, according to the Tamil Nadu government official. India aims to expand nuclear capacity to at least 100 gigawatt by 2047, up from about 9 gigawatt currently.
Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
In India, Trump's tariffs spark calls to boycott American goods
NEW DELHI: From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to Amazon and Apple, US-based multinationals are facing calls for a boycott in India as business executives and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's supporters stoke anti-American sentiment to protest against US the world's most populous nation, is a key market for American brands that have rapidly expanded to target a growing base of affluent consumers, many of whom remain infatuated with international labels seen as symbols of moving up in life. India, for example, is the biggest market by users for Meta's WhatsApp and Domino's has more restaurants than any other brand in the country. Beverages like Pepsi and Coca-Cola often dominate store shelves, and people still queue up when a new Apple store opens or a Starbucks cafe doles out discounts. Although there was no immediate indication of sales being hit, there's a growing chorus both on social media and offline to buy local and ditch American products after Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on goods from India, rattling exporters and damaging ties between New Delhi and Coca-Cola, Amazon and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters Chowdhary, co-founder of India's Wow Skin Science, took to LinkedIn with a video message urging support for farmers and startups to make 'Made in India' a 'global obsession,' and to learn from South Korea whose food and beauty products are famous worldwide.'We have lined up for products from thousands of miles away. We have proudly spent on brands that we don't own, while our own makers fight for attention in their own country,' he Shastry, CEO of India's DriveU, which provides a car driver on call service, wrote on LinkedIn: 'India should have its own home-grown Twitter/Google/YouTube/WhatsApp/FB — like China has.' To be fair, Indian retail companies give foreign brands like Starbucks stiff competition in the domestic market, but going global has been a challenge. Indian IT services firms, however, have become deeply entrenched in the global economy, with the likes of TCS and Infosys providing software solutions to clients world Sunday, Modi made a 'special appeal' for becoming self-reliant, telling a gathering in Bengaluru that Indian technology companies made products for the world but 'now is the time for us to give more priority to India's needs.'He did not name any as anti-American protests simmer, Tesla launched its second showroom in India in New Delhi, with Monday's opening attended by Indian commerce ministry officials and US embassy Swadeshi Jagran Manch group, which is linked to Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, took out small public rallies across India on Sunday, urging people to boycott American brands.'People are now looking at Indian products. It will take some time to fructify,' Ashwani MaHajjan, the group's co-convenor, told Reuters. 'This is a call for nationalism, patriotism.'He also shared with Reuters a table his group is circulating on WhatsApp, listing Indian brands of bath soaps, toothpaste and cold drinks that people could choose over foreign social media, one of the group's campaigns is a graphic titled 'Boycott foreign food chains,' with logos of McDonald's and many other restaurant Uttar Pradesh, Rajat Gupta, 37, who was dining at a McDonald's in Lucknow on Monday, said he wasn't concerned about the tariff protests and simply enjoyed the 49-rupee ($0.55) coffee he considered good value for money.'Tariffs are a matter of diplomacy and my McPuff, coffee should not be dragged into it,' he said.
