NEW DELHI: In a key step towards mending diplomatic ties, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval held bilateral security consultations with his Canadian counterpart Nathalie Drouin in New Delhi on Thursday.
The high-level dialogue comes nearly two years after diplomatic relations between the two nations were rocked by Canadian allegations over the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The meeting also marked the first major engagement between the two countries' security establishments since both sides appointed new High Commissioners in August, following months of diplomatic chill. Doval and Drouin’s meeting is also seen as a follow-up to the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Kananaskis this June.
“This is part of the regular bilateral security consultations that happen between the two countries,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a media briefing on Friday.
The talks took place against the backdrop of renewed threats from the US-based Khalistani outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), which announced a protest “siege” outside the Indian Consulate in Vancouver on September 18. The group circulated threatening posters targeting India’s new High Commissioner to Canada, Dinesh Patnaik, sparking fresh concerns in New Delhi.
“The responsibility to ensure security of Indian diplomatic premises lies with the host government,” Jaiswal said. “As and when there is a concern, we do take it up with the concerned side, in this case Canada, to ensure there is adequate security for our diplomatic premises,” he said
SFJ’s announcement coincided with the anniversary of former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s explosive statement in Parliament in September 2023, where he alleged that Indian agents may have been involved in Nijjar’s killing—a charge strongly and consistently refuted by India.
Nijjar, a designated terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA), was gunned down outside a gurdwara in British Columbia on June 18, 2023.
Indian officials used Thursday’s talks to raise concerns over the safety of their diplomatic personnel and premises in Canada, the activities of pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil, and long-pending extradition requests. Canadian authorities, in turn, flagged their own worries over transnational criminal networks with links to India, sources said.