Canada on Friday withdrew 41 diplomats from India, days after New Delhi claimed their removal for professing hindrance in internal affairs.
Trudeau’s Critique Alleged Violations
image source – OpIndia
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said by revoking diplomatic immunity to 40 diplomats, India fractured a “very basic principle of diplomacy.” Continuing his rant against India on Friday, he said New Delhi violated the Vienna Convention and all countries in the world should be bothered about the move. He also surfaced the subject of the killing of Khalistani terrorist and Sikh Separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar and mentioned it is difficult for millions of people to continue normal life cycle in both India & Canada.
India’s Justification – Political Parity & Vienna Convention
“The actions taken by the Government of India this week are contrary to the international law and decided to abort the political impunity of 40 Canadian diplomats in India. This is a violation of the Vienna Convention governing diplomacy. It’s something that all countries in the world should be upset about and it is also putting aside the allegations we made of a serious violation of international law with the asserted killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil that the Indian government could have been involved in,” he said.
“The Government of India decided to drop the diplomatic protections of 40 diplomats working in India. The Indian government is making it conceivably difficult for life as usual to continue for millions of people in India and in Canada and they are doing it by breaching a very basic principle of diplomacy,” he added.
Canada on Friday withdrew 41 diplomats from India days after New Delhi claimed their removal professing hindrance in internal affairs. New Delhi had asked for the removal saying it wanted to achieve equality in the number of political staff posted in India and Canada.
Bilateral Relations – Future Prospects
“The state of our bilateral relations, the important advanced number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued hindrance in our internal affairs warrant a parity in collective political presence in New Delhi and Ottawa.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said Ottawa has “decided not to recompose” indeed as the development was defined as “expatriation” of the Canadian diplomats.
India defended its conduct for political parity by saying they’re completely harmonious with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention, which states “In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission should be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the requirements of the particular mission.”
Global Concerns – US & UK stand with Canada
In the meantime both the US and UK, who are in support of Canada, have expressed concerns over the departure of Canadian diplomats from India.
They said that, “We are perturbed by the decisions of the Indian Government that resulted in a departure of number of Canadian diplomats in India.”
