The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Indian External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, are scheduled to meet this afternoon at the Foggy Bottom headquarters at the State Department. According to the Indian local time, it is expected around midnight!
Answering questions about the Jaishankar and Blinken meeting, Mathew Miller, a State Department Spokesperson, stated to the reporters that he wanted to avoid confirming the issues that the representatives of India and the USA will highlight in their meeting.
However, the USA has made it pretty clear that the Indian counterparts must engage in the investigation performed by the Canadian authorities and officials. According to Miller, the US has decided on the Indian-Canadian row concerning the link that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hinted at!
The India-Canada diplomatic crisis is not a part of the discussion that Mr Blinken and Mr Jaishankar had concerning the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session last week in New York. India has been, however, encouraged by the USA to cooperate with the Canadian investigations into Nijjar’s killing.
Mr. Jaishankar was very clear in his stand, emphasizing the row India is having with Canada without directly highlighting that India does not take chances with matters of principles and policy. From Mr Blinken’s perspective, the US wants to see accountability as an approach, so they are deeply concerned about the overall issue.
Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, hinted at a potential link between the killing of a pro-Khalistan leader in Canada earlier this year and the government of India. It led to a severe standoff between India and Canada, leading to a senior Indian diplomat in Canada being expelled!
Indian officials have become quite defensive of the arrangement and addressed it as “motivated” and “absurd”! This standoff also led to a tit-for-tat action where a senior Canadian diplomat was expelled in Delhi.
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