Canada’s allegations on India raised during meeting with Jaishankar: Blinken

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the United States’ stand urging India to cooperate in the investigation regarding Canadian allegations, adding that the issue was also raised during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday.

Stating that the US is “very concerned” about the allegations, Blinken said those responsible behind the incident need to be “held accountable”.

Addressing a press briefing on Friday, Antony Blinken said, “As I said before and other colleagues have said before, we are very concerned about the allegations that have been raised by Canada by Prime Minister Trudeau. We have been in close contact with Canada about that”.

The US Secretary of State affirmed hope that India and Canada should “work together” to resolve the matter.

“And at the same time, we have engaged with the Indian government and urged them to work with Canada on investigation and I had the opportunity to do so again in my meeting yesterday with Foreign Minister Jaishankar and those responsible need to be held accountable. And we hope that our friends in both Canada and India will work together to resolve this matter,” Blinken added.

Early last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a statement alleging the Indian government of being involved in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. However, India has outrightly rejected the claims, calling it ‘absurd’ and ‘motivated’.

Notably, the US Secretary of State had also made similar remarks before. Last week, Blinken had said that Washington is "deeply concerned" about the allegations made by the Canadian PM about the Indian government's involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, adding that the US wants to see accountability and called it "important" that the investigation runs its course and leads to the result.

Notably, Canada has yet to provide any public evidence to support the claim about the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

India has suspended its visa services in Canada, following Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau's allegations of Indian involvement in the killing.

Amid strained ties, India issued an advisory for its citizens and those who are travelling to Canada to exercise “utmost caution in view of growing anti-India activities and politically-condoned hate crimes and criminal violence" in the country.