Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold talks with Justin Trudeau on Friday, the penultimate day of the Canadian prime minister’s week-long India visit. Photo: Reuters
New Delhi: Expectations are low ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with his host and counterpart Narendra Modi on Friday, though both sides indicated on Thursday that they are looking at a fresh start to India-Canada ties marred by a spate of recent controversies.
I look forward to meeting PM @JustinTrudeau tomorrow and holding talks on further strengthening India-Canada relations in all spheres. I appreciate his deep commitment to ties between our two countries.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 22, 2018
Modi is set to hold talks with Trudeau on Friday—the penultimate day of the Canadian prime minister’s week-long visit to India. He will host lunch for Trudeau in keeping with the welcome extended to visiting dignitaries though it has been pointed out on social media that the welcome accorded to Trudeau when he landed in New Delhi on Saturday was in marked contrast to the ones extended to others like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month when Modi was present at the airport to receive him. Trudeau was received by minister of state for agriculture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
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That sections within the Canadian government allegedly support Sikh separatists who demand a Khalistan carved out of India has not helped matters. Khalistan came up in a meeting between Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland on Thursday.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters that the meeting was a “good” one that covered trade, investment, energy, security matters and tourism. “All matters that are of interest to us were discussed,” he said when asked if Swaraj had brought up the subject in her talks.
Earlier in the day, news reports emerged that an alleged Khalistani terorrist Jaspal Atwal, accused of shooting at a Punjab minister in the 1980s, had been invited to two official events organized for Trudeau in Mumbai and Delhi. Atwal was seen standing next to Trudeau’s wife in a photograph taken at the Mumbai event.
Jaspal Atwal, a convicted Khalistani terrorist , photographed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Trudeau at an event in Mumbai on 20 February. Photo: ANI/Twitter
The resultant uproar caused the Canadian high commission to cancel Atwal’s invitation for the dinner in New Delhi on Thursday evening.
“The high commission has rescinded Mr Atwal’s invitation,” said a statement from the high commission.
Kumar later told reporters that the Canadian side had described the invite as an “oversight” and cancelled it. “We need to move on,” he said, adding that the Indian government was looking into how Atwal was issued a visa.
“Obviously we take this situation extremely seriously. The individual in question never should have received an invitation... The member of Parliament who included this individual has, and will, assume full responsibility for his actions,” Trudeau was quoted as saying by PTI.
