WASHINGTON/OTTAWA: The United States made clear on Friday that it expected the Indian government to work with Canada on efforts to investigate the possible involvement of New Delhi agents in the murder of a Canadian citizen in June.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that Ottawa had credible intelligence linking Indian agents to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, prompting an angry reaction from New Delhi, which denies the allegation.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations that Prime Minister Trudeau has raised,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in a press briefing.
“It would be important that India work with the Canadians on this investigation. We want to see accountability.”
The White House has spoken of its concerns over the allegations, but Blinken is the most senior US official to have commented thus far.
Traditional Canadian allies, including the United States, appeared to take a cautious approach to the matter earlier this week.
Political analysts said this was partly because the United States and other major players see India as a counterweight to the growing influence of China.
“We have been consulting throughout very closely with our Canadian colleagues, not just consulting but coordinating with them on this issue,” Blinken said.
During a press conference Trudeau was asked about the allegations, and he repeated his call for the Indian government to cooperate.
“We are there to work constructively with India. We hope that they engage with us so that we can get to the bottom of this very serious matter,” Trudeau said.
On Friday, Trudeau also said Canada shared its concerns with New Delhi some time ago.
“Canada has shared the credible allegations that I talked about on Monday with India. We did that many weeks ago,” Trudeau told reporters.
The Canadian government has amassed both human and signals intelligence in a months-long investigation into the Sikh separatist leader’s murder, CBC News reported separately on Thursday citing sources.
The report said the intelligence included communications of Indian officials present in Canada, adding some of the information was provided by an unidentified ally in the Five Eyes alliance.
Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing network that includes the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
However, Trudeau has not provided any details about what Canada’s spy agencies have collected, and his office has not confirmed or denied the CBC report.
Senior Canadian government sources have said that Trudeau would not have spoken publicly without having a high level of confidence in the intelligence.
US says it expects India to work with Canada on murder case
https://arab.news/c5c89
US says it expects India to work with Canada on murder case
- Canada said last week it had ‘credible intelligence’ linking Indian agents to murder of Sikh separatist leader
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa had shared intelligence with New Delhi ‘many weeks ago’
Venezuelans divided on Machado peace prize, return home
CARACAS: Venezuelans stood divided Wednesday on the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and on whether she should return home from Oslo.
Supporters were hopeful she will come back to continue leading the political resistance to President Nicolas Maduro, whose last two re-elections were widely dismissed as fraudulent.
But detractors labeled her a traitor for backing US actions against Maduro’s regime, and said she would be better off in exile.
Machado, who had been in hiding in Venezuela for over a year after Maduro’s disputed July 2024 re-election, traveled to Norway but missed the Nobel ceremony.
Her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado accepted the peace prize on her behalf Wednesday.
Nobel officials said Machado was “safe” and would reach Oslo by Thursday at the latest, when she is to hold a press conference.
Her daughter has insisted Machado would return to Venezuela despite arrest fears. Machado’s former campaign manager also insisted there was “no chance” of her taking up exile.
Alirio Villegas, a 78-year-old pensioner in Caracas, told AFP if it were him, he would stay away.
“It’s hard to see her coming back. This country is tough,” he said. “But she has to return... she’s the one leading us. If she leaves, what will we do? She’s the one the country wants.”
For Jazmin Briceno, a 45-year-old teacher, the peace prize was “a good step forward” for Venezuela even as it contends with an economic crisis, mass emigration and fears of US military action against leftist Maduro.
“She’s Venezuelan and she has the right to come back; they can’t prevent it. We’re waiting for her here,” Briceno told AFP.
‘Mother of our country’
Outside city hall in Oslo, where the Nobel ceremony took place, there was a festive atmosphere as exiled Venezuelans gathered from around Europe and as far as Qatar to celebrate Machado’s win.
Draped in the Venezuelan flag, they embraced and cheered as they tried to get closer to Machado’s daughter and two sisters who had made the trip.
“It’s been a great honor to be here and celebrate Maria Corina: a heroine, a mother of our country,” pianist and composer Gabriela Montero told AFP after moving guests to tears with a popular song from her country, “Mi querencia,” weaving in notes of the national anthem.
But the Norwegian Peace Council, an NGO grouping, distanced itself from the ceremony, concerned about Machado’s failure to condemn a US military deployment in the Caribbean.
US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats have killed dozens, including fishermen, according to their families and governments.
Back in Caracas, too, there were critics.
Administrative assistant Abigail Castillo, 24, told AFP it was “a true disgrace that they gave the prize to that woman who has sought genocide...and a blockade of our country.”
Castillo hoped Machado would not return, predicting that: “Like a thief, she’ll stay hidden, living in fear of the strength of every Venezuelan defending our homeland.”
The Maduro government also criticized the prize, which Vice President Delcy Rodriguez described as “blood-stained” due to Machado’s support of US military action.
Rodriguez likened the Oslo ceremony to a wake, saying: “The show flopped, the lady didn’t show up.”
At a rally on Wednesday, Maduro told supporters that Venezuela was demanding an end to “the illegal and brutal interventionism of the United States.”
But for some in Caracas, politics and prizes are not top of mind.
“You don’t get to eat because Maria Corina won a prize,” said 32-year-old carpenter Josmar Rodriguez.
