US raises the issue of Sikh Separatist’s murder during meeting with India’s Jaishankar

We know for a fact that the relations between India and the US are stronger than those between the US and Canada right now and it is only because of geopolitical reasons that the US and Canada need to be close allies as both countries don’t have the same opinions on a lot of issues right now. Talking about Canada, it is worth noting that they claimed there is an involvement of the Indian government in killing of Sikh separatist Nijjar who was involved in the Khalistani movement in Canada. Since then, Canada and India have started to come face-to-face on many occasions.

Yesterday, the meeting between US and India’s Foreign Ministers was held in which it is reported that the US’ Antony Blinken raised the issue of murder of Nijjar to India’s Jaishankar. A US official said that Blinken “urged India to cooperate with a Canadian investigation into the murder of a Sikh separatist during a meeting with Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday”. It is worth noting that India has dismissed Canada’s allegations as absurd, and ties have become strained with both governments expelling a diplomat in a tit-for-tat move.

“The Americans will certainly discuss this matter with the Indian government.” said the Canadian PM during a press conference but he was left stranded when he discussed the issue with all the members of Five Eyes, an intelligence group consisting of the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. While the US official claims that this issue was discussed, the official readout of the meeting did not have any mention of it.

It listed points “like India’s G20 presidency, the creation of an India-Middle East-Europe corridor and topics like defense, space and clean energy”. It definitely looks like the US does not want to directly mention about this issue and reference it to the Indian side officially but it must be trying to convince the Indian side to co-operate with the investigation as there is a pressure from the Canadian side to make India respect its sovereignty as Nijjar was a Canadian citizen and the murder took place inside Canada as well.