CANADA SHUNS TRADE TALKS WITH INDIA AMID KHALISTAN TENSIONS

Sat 02 September 2023:

Just before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heads to New Delhi, India’s ambassador to Canada claims that Ottawa has put the brakes on trade talks, CTV rported.

Sanjay Kumar Verma, the Indian High Commissioner, claimed that Ottawa had requested a halt to ongoing negotiations for an Early Progress Trade Agreement “within the last month.”

“The Canadian side has requested that, let’s take a pause … and then we’ll restart,” Verma said, in a wide-ranging interview ahead of next week’s G20 summit in New Delhi.

“There is an honest request from the Canadian side, and we have no reason not to accept it.”

Verma is a former trade negotiator. He said he’s not sure exactly why Ottawa sought more time, though he suspects it is to better inform industry groups of the proposed deal.

“Our understanding is that there needs to be — now that we are coming closer to the end of the negotiations — probably more consultations with the stakeholders,” he said, while stressing “that’s my conjecture.”

“As we track this, there has been very much a tumultuous roller-coaster,” Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, said in a Friday interview from Hyderabad, India.

But Hyder also suspects the talks have been hindered by tensions over a faction of Sikh communities in Canada who advocate for the separation of part of Punjab, which they call Khalistan.

“CANADA CLOSELY FOLLOWING DEVELOPMENTS IN PUNJAB”: FOREIGN MINISTER

“I don’t think any country would want the sovereignty, of internal affairs of a country, to be interfered with by a third party. There are some elements that I would describe as mischievous to want to disrupt the trade deal,” he said.

Hyder argued both governments should avoid letting those elements kill a trade deal that would benefit India and Canada.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

______________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent