CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said today that he is looking forward to meet Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who will be visiting India from February 17 to 23.
During his trip, Trudeau will visit Amritsar, Agra, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi. In Amritsar, Trudeau will be visiting the Golden Temple. “The visit will give Canada and Punjab the opportunity to strengthen business and trade ties for mutual benefit,” he said.
Amarinder had refused to meet Canadian Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan during latter’s visit to Punjab last year and had even accused him of being a “Khalistani sympathiser”. Amarinder has welcomed the categorical denial by Sajjan of taking a pro-Khalistani stance, and congratulated Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for creating the necessary environment against secessionist forces believed to be operating from his country.
Sajjan’s statement, that he and fellow Sikh minister Amarjit Sohi, “neither sympathise with nor espouse the Sikh nationalist movement, which is bent on creating a separate country called Khalistan in India’s Punjab region” indicated that the Canadian Prime Minister had clearly sent out a strong signal within his party and government that he would not allow his country’s soil to be used for any anti India activities, said Amarinder. The latest statements by Sajjan and Sohi, who has also made it clear that he does not sympathise with the (Khalistani) cause, have paved the way for better relations with Canada, which shares strong roots with India in view of the large Sikh population settled there, Amarinder said.
Reiterating that he had always found Trudeau to be a fine human being, the Chief Minister said he looked forward to meeting the Canadian Prime Minister during the latter’s visit to India, including Punjab, later this month.
Amarinder, as Punjab Congress chief in 2016, had written a strongly-worded letter to Trudeau, lodging a protest for denying permission for interaction with Punjabi NRIs in Canada in run-up to the Punjab Assembly elections and had called it a “gag order”.