NEW DELHI: India on Friday shared with the US the security concerns it has vis-a-vis Canada, at the 2+2 Indo-US ministerial dialogue here. The fifth round of talks was attended by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
“As far as Canada is concerned, we have been having very consistent conversation with all our friends in governments and our position on this matter has been enunciated in full detail on multiple occasions. Thrust of the conversation is essentially that we have security concerns with Canada. The recent threat by Gurpatwant Pannun is an example to prove our concern,” said Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra.
Pannun is a Khalistani separatist and founder of the banned Sikhs for Justice. In a recent video, he asked Sikhs not to take any Air India flight on Nov 19 as it would be a security challenge for them.
The other issues that came up for discussions included the Indo Pacific, Israel-Hamas conflict, IMEC, and defence ties.
“We concluded a substantive India-US 2+2 Ministerial Meeting and followed up on PM Modi’s State visit to the US this June. Our agenda covered advancing our strategic partnership, including elevating our defense ties, moving forward in space and tech, future logistics cooperation and people to people contacts. We also exchanged perspectives on the Indo-Pacific, South Asia, West Asia and Ukraine conflict.
Reaffirmed our commitment to our collaboration in multilateral arena and engaging the Global South,” Jaishankar said. Both sides noted substantial progress in transforming relations across domains based on trust and understanding.
On Israel
Both sides reiterated that they stand with Israel against terrorism and called for adherence to international humanitarian law, including with regard to protection of civilians. They welcomed humanitarian pauses in the ongoing war