INDIA WILL GIVE STRONG RESPONSE TO TRUDEAU SPYING ON INDIAN DIPLOMATS

The Indian government is likely to take strong action against the Canadian government's decision to mount a substantial spying and snooping operation on Indian diplomats who were and are posted in Canada.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

The Indian government is likely to take strong action against the Canadian government's decision to mount a substantial spying and snooping operation on Indian diplomats who were and are posted in Canada.

Official sources said that it was beyond doubt that the decision of the Justin Trudeau government to keep Indian diplomats under audio and video surveillance was done only after permission was taken from the office of Prime Minister Trudeau himself.

This comprehensive level of surveillance, sources said, was not acceptable for any reasons.

It should not, and will not, go unanswered, the officials said, with responses extending beyond mere words and the summoning of a Canadian official in Delhi for a demarche.

The substantive level of surveillance, officials stated, cannot be justified by the technical reasons conveyed by Ottawa. It violates multiple articles of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, including Article 22, which establishes that a mission's premises are inviolable, and Article 27, which mandates that the host country must protect free communication for the mission and ensure that its official correspondence remains inviolable.