WASHINGTON, Sep 28 (Aljazeera) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with his Indian counterpart in Washington, DC, as the United States has urged India to cooperate with Canada’s investigation into the killing of a prominent Sikh Canadian leader.
At the start of talks with Blinken on Thursday afternoon, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said it was “good to be back” in the US capital and thanked Washington for its support at the recent G20 summit in New Delhi.
Jaishankar also met US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan earlier in the day, writing on social media that the pair “recognized the tremendous progress in our bilateral relationship this year and discussed taking it forward”.
But Jaishankar’s trip comes as India faces growing international scrutiny after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that Ottawa was investigating “credible allegations of a potential link” between India and the killing of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller declined to preview the meeting between Blinken and Jaishankar, but said Washington has urged New Delhi to cooperate with the probe. Miller added that those efforts will continue.
However, Trudeau told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he had received assurances from US officials that Blinken will raise the Canadian allegations with Jaishankar.
“The Americans have been with us in speaking to the Indian government about how important it is that they be involved in following up on the credible allegations that agents of the Indian government killed a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” the prime minister said.
Nijjar, who was fatally shot outside a Sikh temple in the province of British Columbia in June, was a vocal supporter of a Sikh separatist movement in India and had been previously labelled a “terrorist” by New Delhi.
Blinken has previously said the administration of US President Joe Biden is “deeply concerned” by Canada’s allegations, and that Washington is coordinating with Ottawa on the issue.
Last week, the US secretary of state also said it was “critical that the Canadian investigation proceed, and it would be important that India work with the Canadians”.
India has roundly rejected the accusations it was involved in Nijjar’s killing as “absurd” and politically motivated.
New Delhi also has accused Ottawa of harbouring Sikh “terrorists and extremists”. Indian officials have long framed the decades-long Sikh separatist movement, known as the Khalistan movement, as a pressing threat to national security.
Most recently, Jaishankar, when asked about the allegations at a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York on Tuesday, said India had told Canada it would look into any “specific” details it provides on the killing of Nijjar.
Photo from AP
