India’s diplomatic row with Canada, in which each side recently expelled six diplomats, is also threatening to affect bilateral trade and immigration ties.
Security officials in New Delhi said the dispute, in which Ottawa has claimed the direct involvement of Indian officials in the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist leader, is likely to jeopardise or “interminably delay” the provision of more than 730,000 Canadian visas primarily to Indian students and others seeking either to migrate or visit family.
This is of particular concern in India’s northern Punjab state, home to the country’s Sikh population, which provides the bulk of more than 1.7 million Indian expatriates in Canada. More than 800,000 Sikhs live in Canada, the largest such number outside Punjab which comprises some 2.1 per cent of that country’s overall population.
Large numbers of Sikhs travel home during winter for weddings, family reunions and to escape the harsh North American winter, but with reduced staff in the Indian embassy in Ottawa after the recent round of diplomatic expulsions last week, many fear not being able to obtain visas.
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Thousands of Sikh students planning to study in Canada have paid large but non-refundable fees and face the prospect of severe financial losses. They fear Canada will stop admitting Indian students to universities and colleges.
Neither country has imposed tariffs or other retaliatory financial embargoes, but senior Indian diplomats warned this could change as political and diplomatic ties are poised to further deteriorate.
Bilateral trade between the two sides increased marginally to €7.75 billion last year, but media reports, quoting unnamed defence officials in Delhi, have indicated that the proposed import of Stryker infantry combat vehicles for the Indian army which are manufactured in Ontario, have been paused, and could be scrapped.
The crisis followed Canadian accusations that Indian government officials planned the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (45), in a car park in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey in June 2023.
A plumber who left Punjab for Canada in the late 1990s and became its citizen in 2007, Nijjar was formally declared a “wanted terrorist” by India in 2020. India alleges he was involved in several killings and acts of violence in his campaign to create an independent Sikh homeland of Khalistan in Punjab.
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