Diplomacy has broken down': Canada's row with India over murdered Sikh

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Oct 14 accused Indian diplomats of backing violence against Canadians. This claim escalated bilateral tensions that started in 2023 over the assassination of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil. Nirmala Ganapathy and Arvind Jayaram outline the latest developments, and examine the implications for the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, in which India and Canada are key partners.

- Nirmala Ganapathy and Arvind Jayaram

NEW DELHI – On Oct 12, top security officials from India and Canada gathered for a secret meeting in Singapore.

For over five hours, they sought to come to an understanding over New Delhi's alleged involvement in the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist on Canadian soil, but in the end, the powwow came to naught.

Two days later, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly escalated the row. The country on Oct 14 expelled six Indian diplomats, including India's High Commissioner to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma, for purportedly gathering information and intimidating members of the Indian diaspora.

India contradicted this by claiming it had recalled its diplomats, and countered by giving six Canadian diplomats notice to leave by Oct 19. It summoned and expelled Acting High Commissioner in India Stewart Wheeler, currently Canada's top diplomat in the South Asian country.

Mr Trudeau in 2023 claimed in Parliament that he had evidence linking Indian agents to the murder in Canadian territory of Mr Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh who supported the notion of a separate Sikh state called Khalistan carved out of India's Punjab state. India designated him a terrorist.

The latest developments have blown open a dispute between India and Canada that has been brewing since Mr Nijjar was fatally shot as he got into his truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey.

On Oct 14, Mr Trudeau, during a press conference in Ottawa on the diplomatic expulsions, said: "We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil, a deeply unacceptable violation of Canada's sovereignty and of international law."