washington —
An unprecedented allegation by one leading democracy essentially accusing another of carrying out a political assassination on its soil is causing significant concern among key allies of both nations.
Officials in Washington and London are assessing the ramifications after Canada publicly tied India’s government to the killing of a Sikh leader three months ago. Canada on Monday announced that in response, it had expelled the top Indian intelligence official in Canada. India on Tuesday retaliated by ordering a senior Canadian diplomat to depart the country.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations referenced by Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau,” said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council. “We remain in regular contact with our Canadian partners. It is critical that Canada’s investigation proceed, and the perpetrators be brought to justice.”
The United States is urging India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, according to a senior State Department official.
India’s government says any allegations of involvement by its officials in acts of violence in Canada are “absurd and motivated.”
"The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate," Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday.
The allegations, however, “have the potential to cloud out other strategic challenges Canada faces, such as foreign interference by China and Russia. The timing comes less than one year after Canada’s release of an Indo-Pacific strategy which highlighted the aspirations for greater partnership with India,” noted Jonathan Berkshire Miller, director of foreign affairs, national security and defense at Canada’s Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
