Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday accused the Indian government of making a "fundamental error" by supporting criminal activities in Canada.
"When I spoke to PM Modi at the end of last week, I highlighted how incredibly important meeting between our national security advisors in Singapore this weekend was going to be. He was aware of that meeting and I pressed upon him that the meeting needs to be taken very, very seriously," Trudeau said.
Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc and Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly were also present during the press conference.
Trudeau further spoke about the broader implications for Canada-India relations, alleging that the Indian government had made a "fundamental error" by supporting criminal activities against Canadians.
"The Indian government made a fundamental error in thinking that they could engage in supporting criminal activities against Canadians, here on Canadian soil, be it murder or extortion. This is absolutely unacceptable," Trudeau claimed.
Trudeau claimed that Canada is commitment to working with India despite the tensions.
"This is not a choice that Canada made to create a chill in Canada-India relations. India is an important democracy, a country with which we have deep historical people-to-people business ties at a time where the instability around geopolitics means democracies have to stick together. That is why when we started to understand through intelligence agencies that India was possibly if not probably, behind (Hardeep Singh) Nijjar's killing, the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil last summer, our first choice to the government of India to say, we know this has happened, work with us to fix this," he claimed.
"We don't want to be having this fight, but obviously the killing of a Canadian on Canadian soil is not something that we can ignore as a country," he added.
Trudeau further said that Canada had taken a transparent approach and sought cooperation with Indian authorities. "So every step of the way we have apprised India of what we know. I've spoken directly with Prime Minister Modi. We have engaged with intelligence counterparts, and unfortunately, every step of the way, both after I made the statement in the House of Commons last September and till now, the response of the Indian government has been to deny, to obfuscate, to attack me personally and the integrity of the government of Canada and its officials and its police agencies," he said.
