![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://qvive.in/india-news/india-asks-canada-to-recall-41-diplomats-by-october-10-report-jutin-trudeau-says-not-looking-to-escalate-situation/&media=https://qvive.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/canada-india-relations-1.jpg&description=Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41. PM Justin Trudeau on said Canada was not looking to "escalate" the situation with India.){kind=link}
New Delhi: India has asked Canada to recall 41 of its diplomats from the country by October 10, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Neither India nor Canada reacted to the report that came 12 days after New Delhi asked Ottawa to downsize its diplomatic presence in India.
Canada has 62 diplomats in India and New Delhi said that the number should be reduced by 41, the report said.
The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
India rejected the allegations as “absurd” and “motivated” and expelled a senior Canadian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move to Ottawa’s expulsion of an Indian official over the case.
Nijjar was shot dead by two masked gunmen on June 18 in British Columbia. India had designated him a terrorist in 2020.
On September 21, India asked Canada to downsize its diplomatic presence in the country as relations between the two countries plunged to an all-time low following Ottawa’s allegations against New Delhi.
Announcing the measure, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had said the size of Canadian diplomatic staff in India is larger than what New Delhi has in Canada and that there should be a “parity in strength and rank equivalence” in the mutual presence.
Canada not looking to ‘escalate’ situation: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday said Canada was not looking to “escalate” the situation with India amid the diplomatic row between the two countries over the killing of a Khalistani separatist and asserted that his government will continue to have “constructive relations” with New Delhi.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Trudeau also said that it’s important for Canada to have diplomats on the ground in India, amid a report by London-based Financial Times that New Delhi wants as many as 41 of 62 remaining Canadian diplomats out of the country, the Toronto Sun newspaper reported.
“Obviously, we’re going through an extremely challenging time with India right now,” Trudeau was quoted as saying by the Canadian newspaper.
PTI