Abhijay Raj Vaish, Pune
India and Canada have halted their trade talks due to the Trudeau government’s inability to act against Khalistan supporters. Canada had earlier announced for the negotiations to be paused without assigning any reasons for the decision.
India and Canada were negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to bolster bilateral trade between the nations while also aiming for easier visa restrictions for students and professionals. The bilateral trade was reported to stand around $8 billion between the two nations in 2022-23.
Piyush Goyal, India’s Commerce and Industry Minister and Mary Ng, Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business, and Economic Development, held the sixth round of trade talks for the agreement in Ottawa in May this year. These sentiments were also communicated during Trudeau’s visit to New Delhi during the G20 Summit by PM Narendra Modi. The Indian PM had brought up the issue of the rise of anti-India activities of extremist sentiments in Canada.
The Canadian PM had later notified the media that his country would always defend freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and freedom of peaceful protest while acting against hatred. He said, “I think on the issue of the community, it is important to remember that the actions of the few do not represent the entire community or Canada. The flip side of it, we also highlighted the importance of the rule of law and we did talk about foreign interference.”
This issue had risen to the fore after several incidents of pro-Khalistani activities being witnessed in Canada this year. It has been spiraling further with India issuing an advisory for Indian nationals and students in Canada. India has also suspended the visa services for Canadian nationals till further notice.
In the issue snowballing further, the Canadian PM had accused Indian agents of being involved in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Canada and India have each suspended a diplomat citing this cause.
India had earlier rejected these allegations and called them “fake” and “motivated.”