- Tuesday, May 06, 2025
Several members of the Five Eyes — an intelligence-sharing network including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — raised the murder case with the Indian PM.
By: Shubham Ghosh
US president Joe Biden expressed concern with some other leaders to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at the recently held G20 summit in New Delhi over Canada’s claims that the Indian government was involved in the elimination of Khalistan separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, in June.
The Financial Times reported this on Thursday (21).
Several members of the Five Eyes — an intelligence-sharing network including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — raised the murder case with Modi, the newspaper report said, citing three familiar sources.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who had a subdued trip to India for the G20 summit, made the allegations against India public earlier this week while addressing the Canadian parliament, leading to a major diplomatic tussle with India.
According to the report, the western leaders intervened at the G20 summit after Ottawa requested its allies to raise the matter with Modi, the Times report added.
Earlier on Thursday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that Washington was in touch with the Indian officials at high levels following the Trudeau government’s claims about the killing of Nijjar and that the US was not giving India any “special exemption” in the matter.
While Ottawa’s allies expressed “deep concerns” over the allegations, they did not agree to publicly condemn India, the Washington Post reported, quoting an anonymous western diplomat.
India rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and following expulsion of each other’s diplomats, India on Thursday also suspended new visas for Canadians and asked the North American nation to reduce its diplomatic presence in the south Asian country.
Canada’s allies have found themselves at an awkward position over the row with India as they have been close to both Ottawa and New Delhi. The western nations are particularly seeking to build robust ties with India to tackle China in the Asia Pacific region.
