Modi meets foreign minister Jaishankar amid Canada diplomatic row

INDIAN prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (20) met his external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar at a time when diplomatic ties between India and Canada have plummeted.

Matters took a serious turn on Monday (18) when Canada's Justin Trudeau government claimed of having "credible allegations" linking the Modi government to the elimination of a Khalistan separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June. Ottawa also expelled a senior Indian diplomat who it identified as an intelligence official. New Delhi retaliated by asking a senior Canadian diplomat in India to leave the country within five days.

Canada on Tuesday (19) also issued an advisory for its citizens warning them against travelling to the northern Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir over terrorist threat. Prime minister Trudeau said his government was not trying to provoke India or escalate things but wanted New Delhi to treat the Nijjar case seriously.

Amid the diplomatic row, the Modi-Jaishankar meeting took place in the new parliament house where they spoke over the country's ties with Canada.

India had earlier rejected the Canadian side's claim as "absurd" and "motivated".

The development comes just days after Modi reportedly rebuked Trudeau during their brief talk on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi and the free-trade talks between the two democracies getting derailed for the time being. A trade mission headed by the Canadian trade minister to India in October was also postponed.