S Jaishankar with Antony Blinken
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is set to visit US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, amid a diplomatic squabble between India and Canada over the assassination of a Khalistani separatist.
Although officials from both sides have been tight-lipped about the meeting’s agenda, the recent diplomatic crisis between America’s longtime allies, Canada and India, is expected to come up prominently during the talks.
Matthew Miller, State Department Spokesperson, stated, “I don’t want to preview the conversations he (Antony Blinken) will have in that meeting (with Jaishankar), but as we’ve made clear, we’ve raised this; we have engaged with our Indian counterparts on this and encouraged them to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, and we continue to encourage them to cooperate”.
He was replying to inquiries regarding the meeting between Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Antony Blinken at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters on Thursday afternoon.
The two leaders are likely to pose for photos before the meeting and are not expected to answer media questions.
While the meeting between the two top diplomats was planned long before the Canadian situation erupted, the US has been asking India to cooperate in the Canadian probe into the death of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia early this year.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has claimed that the Indian government was responsible for the June 18 killing of Nijjar, 45, outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia. Nijjar was labeled a terrorist by India in 2020.
India has denied the charges, calling them absurd and motivated, and has removed a senior Canadian diplomat in retaliation for Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official. India has also requested that Canada crack down on terrorists and anti-India elements operating from its territory, as well as stop visa services for Canadians.
Miller stated that the subject was not discussed in New York during the Quad ministerial, which included the foreign ministers of the United States, India, Japan, and Australia.
“It was a meeting of a number of countries and it did not come up in that meeting. But we have engaged with our Indian counterparts on this issue and urged them to fully cooperate with the Canadian investigation”, the State Department spokesperson continued.
Mr. Jaishankar reached Washington from New York on Tuesday after attending the United Nations’s annual General Assembly meetings.
In addition to his meeting with Mr. Blinken, the external affairs minister is expected to have a series of meetings with senior officials from the Biden administration, review progress made between the two countries since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic State visit in June, and discuss other regional and global issues.
The minister is also slated to meet with members of the diaspora, think-tank leaders, and business executives.
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