India reviewing security diplomats in Canada before restarting issuance of visas : S Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India invoked diplomatic parity as it had concerns about continuous interference in its affairs by Canadian personnel.

He also said the government was reviewing the security of its diplomats in Canada before restarting issuance of visas, but indicated any such move shouldn’t be interpreted as softening of India’s stand on the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

“Right now, the big concern is issuance of visas, which we stopped recently after it was no longer safe for our diplomats to go to workplace. Their safety was the primary reason we had to temporarily stop the process. My hope, my expectation is that the situation will improve and people will have greater confidence in being able to do their basic duty as diplomats,” Jaishankar said at Kautilya Conclave here today.

Stopped visas as envoys felt unsafe going to work

Right now, the big concern which people have is about visas. Some weeks ago, we stopped issuing visas because it was no longer safe for our diplomats to go to work to issue visas. S Jaishankar, eam

MEA should move FATF on Canada, says BJP

Amid strong buzz that India was mulling options to go to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with evidence of Khalistani terrorist activity in Canada, BJP spokesperson RP Singh called upon the government to petition the FATF.

Even if India begins issuing visas, there will be no let-up in the problem in ties between the two countries, which Jaishankar said “is with certain segments of Canadian politics and the policies which flow from that.”

The EAM also pushed back at claims from the foreign offices of Canada, the UK and the US that India’s sending back of 41 Canadian diplomats was a violation of the Vienna Convention. “Parity on how many diplomats of one country with diplomats of another country is very much provided for by the Vienna Convention, which is the relevant international rule on this. But in our case, we invoked parity because we had concerns about continuous interference in our affairs by Canadian personnel,” Jaishankar said. Stating that he wanted “people to understand the extent of the issue”, Jaishankar said the government is yet to reveal much of evidence about Canadian interference in India, which was the main reason to seek parity in diplomatic strength.

“We haven’t made much of that public. My sense is that over a period of time, most stuff will come out and people will understand why we had the kind of discomfort with many of them which we did.”

He added, “Ensuring the security of diplomats is the most fundamental aspect of the Vienna Convention...the trouble is that it has, in many ways, been challenged. Our diplomats are not safe. If we see progress there, I would like very much to issue visas. I hope something would happen very, very soon.