MELBOURNE, Australia –
Australia’s overseas minister mentioned Tuesday she raised allegations together with her Indian counterpart that India has focused Sikh activists in Canada.
Overseas Minister Penny Wong mentioned she mentioned the Canadian allegations with Indian Overseas Minister S. Jaishankar whereas he was within the Australian capital, Canberra.
India has denied Canada’s allegation that Indian Dwelling Minister Amit Shah ordered the concentrating on of Sikh activists inside Canada.
Wong mentioned her message to the Sikh neighborhood was that folks have a proper to be secure and revered in Australia, no matter who they’re.
“We’ve made clear our considerations concerning the allegations below investigation. We’ve mentioned that we respect Canada’s judicial course of,” Wong mentioned at a information convention with Jaishankar.
“We convey our views to India as you’d anticipate us to do and we’ve a principled place in relation to issues such because the rule of legislation and the independence of the judiciary and in addition, frankly, the sovereignty of all international locations,” she added.
Jaishankar mentioned Canada has put Indian diplomats below surveillance, which was “unacceptable.”
“Canada has developed a sample of creating allegations with out offering specifics,” he mentioned.
Australia has shut intelligence-sharing ties with Canada as members of the 5 Eyes alliance that additionally contains the USA, Britain and New Zealand.
Over the weekend, India formally protested Canada’s allegation of Sikh activists being focused there as “absurd and baseless.”
Jaishankar on Tuesday additionally condemned reviews of vandalism at a Hindu temple close to Toronto on Sunday as “deeply regarding.” In movies on social media, demonstrators carrying yellow flags in help of the Sikh separatist motion will be seen clashing with others, together with some holding India’s nationwide flag, contained in the temple complicated. Indian consular officers have been visiting the temple the place the clashes erupted. It was unclear how the violence started.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau known as the violence on the temple “unacceptable,” including that “each Canadian has the fitting to observe their religion freely and safely.”
The assault on the temple additionally drew a powerful rebuke from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. “Equally appalling are the cowardly makes an attempt to intimidate our diplomats. Such acts of violence won’t ever weaken India’s resolve,” he wrote on the social media platform X, including that India expects Canada to make sure justice.
Relations between the 2 international locations soured after Trudeau mentioned final yr there have been credible allegations the Indian authorities had hyperlinks to the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. India has vehemently rejected the accusation.
New Delhi, lengthy anxious about Sikh separatist teams, has more and more accused the Canadian authorities of giving free rein to separatists from a once-strong motion to create an unbiased Sikh homeland, often known as Khalistan, in India.
The diplomatic row led to the expulsion of every aspect’s prime diplomats final month.
Jaishankar mentioned, “We consider in freedoms, however we additionally consider freedom shouldn’t be misused.”
Canada will not be the one nation that has accused Indian officers of plotting an assassination on overseas soil. America Justice Division introduced prison expenses in mid-October in opposition to an Indian authorities worker in reference to an alleged foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist chief residing in New York Metropolis.
The U.S. Justice Division mentioned Vikash Yadav, who authorities say directed the New York plot from India, faces murder-for-hire expenses in an alleged deliberate killing that prosecutors have beforehand mentioned was meant to precede a string of different politically motivated murders in the USA and Canada.
Related Press author Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
