US envoy to Canada says intelligence shared among 'Five Eyes' led Trudeau to make allegation against India

NEW DELHI: United States Ambassador to Canada David Cohen has said shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners led Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to make the allegation that India was behind the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

"There was shared intelligence among Five Eyes partners that helped lead Canada to making the statements that the Prime Minister made," said Cohen in a televised interview with CTV News.

Cohen would not comment on whether the intelligence informing the Canadian government's investigation was both human and surveillance-based, or whether it included signals intelligence of Indian diplomats.

The US envoy also said that there was a lot of communication between Ottawa and Washington DC.

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"Look, I will say this was a matter of shared intelligence information," Cohen said. "There was a lot of communication between Canada and the United States about this, and I think that's as far as I'm comfortable going," he added.

Cohen also said that the US took these allegations very seriously.

"And, you know, if they prove to be true, it is a potentially very serious breach of the rules-based international order in which we like to function," he said.

Officials in Washington have said that Biden's concern over the allegations has been expressed to India, and the US has asked India to co-operate in Canada's investigation, according to the ambassador.

"We think it's very important to get to the bottom of it," Cohen said.

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