Toronto The Canadian government is focused on getting India to cooperate in the investigation into the killing of Khalistani figure Hardeep Singh Nijjar, rather than resuming trade talks, a senior minister has suggested.
Read here: Canada never provided evidence of Hardeep Nijjar’s murder, says Jaishankar
Mary Ng, Canada’s minister of export promotion, international trade and economic development, told media on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco: “Right now, the focus for Canada is to advance the work of the inquiry,” he said the news agency CBC News.
When Ng was asked whether trade talks could resume, he replied: “You’ve heard me and the government talking about how important it is that investigations take place, considering that we have a Canadian on Canadian Soil was killed. “So let’s let that happen.”
Although she did not want to directly link cooperation in the investigation and the discussions, she said: “Our focus is of course on these investigations, work needs to be done on that.”
Talks on an Early Progress Trade Agreement (EPTA) were “paused” by Canada before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons on September 18 that there were “credible allegations” of a possible link between Indian agents and the Nijjar murder on June 18 in Surrey, British Columbia.
A Team Canada trade mission to India planned for October and led by Ng was also cancelled.
On Friday, Indian High Commissioner to Ottawa Sanjay Kumar Verma had said during a media interaction in Toronto that “whenever Canada takes a decision to lift the pause”, it will “take just a few months to finalize” the EPTA is negotiations. There were ten rounds of discussions before the break. Verma had said he could not predict a timeline for resumption of dialogue. EPTA should be an interim agreement towards the goal of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
Those active in the India-Canada business corridor were skeptical that talks would resume any time soon. At Friday’s media event, Victor Thomas, president and CEO of the Canada-India Business Council, said he conveyed that sense to members of the chamber. “Given everything that’s going on, I don’t expect any meaningful trade talks to happen anytime soon,” he said.
Read here: India doesn’t rule out probe, asks Canada to share evidence: Jaishankar on Hardeep Nijjar’s murder
Trudeau’s statement rocked relations between India and Canada. Immediately thereafter, both countries expelled one diplomat each, and India suspended visa processing for Canadian nationals, resuming the process in four categories only on October 25. India also sought “parity” in diplomatic presence with Canada, leading to 41 Canadian diplomats leaving India in October in what Ottawa described as a “mass expulsion.”
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