India-Canada row: Ottawa's allies reluctant to take sides
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Ottawa: While Ottawa and New Delhi are mired in an intense dispute over allegations that Indian agents were responsible for the June 18 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, Canada's allies have shown "little inclination" to wade into the row, a media report said on Tuesday.
In spite of the fact that Canada’s Justin Trudeau government feels it has enough information to make an accusation in Parliament and expel a diplomat, most of the allies opted to treat the allegation as a matter still to be investigated, the report said.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau wanted the Five Eyes alliance members to jointly announce the probe findings against the role of Indian government agents’ role in the murder. The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Tuesday said, "They are certainly serious allegations and we believe in order to determine how credible they are, there needs to be a thorough investigation."
"Prime Minister Trudeau has called for that, and so we'll see how Canada moves forward on this. It's certainly well within their capacity to do this, and we urge India as well to participate and cooperate in that investigation," Kirby said, adding it is important to find out exactly what happened.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to comment on the matter. "I don't talk about Five Eyes intelligence at a press conference, funnily enough," he said in response to a question about India's alleged role.
"That's why it's called intelligence. It's because we don't speculate on what the intelligence is. So I don't intend to talk about Five Eyes intelligence here or anywhere else," Albanese asserted.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly put out a tweet that made no mention of India at all.
"All countries should respect sovereignty and the rule of law. We are in regular contact with our Canadian partners about serious allegations raised in the Canadian Parliament. Important that Canada's investigation runs its course and the perpetrators brought to justice."
For Canada's allies, the accusation presents the risk of alienating the world's most populous country just when they least want to do so, a Canadian media outlet reported.
With inputs from IANS
