Canadian Speaker skips P20 summit in Delhi amid souring diplomatic ties
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had said last week that he would discuss a number of issues with his Canadian counterpart informally during the event.
Speaker of the Canadian Senate Raymonde Gagne skipped the Presiding Officers’ Summit of Parliaments of G20 nations that began in Delhi on Thursday, reported PTI.
The P20 Summit is attended by the Speakers or heads of legislatures of G20 member countries and guest countries. India hosted the G20 summit on September 9 and September 10.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday confirmed that the Canadian representative will not be attending the event.
“We invite all members for G20 events, in this case P20,” ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters. “Participation is their decision and subject to a number of factors. I think you should ask them. I’ll have to check whether anybody is attending from Canada because the Parliament Speaker could not attend.”
This comes after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had said last week that he would discuss a number of issues with his Canadian counterpart informally, reported PTI. The development comes amidst diplomatic strife between Ottawa and New Delhi that began last month after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen.
Trudeau had made the allegations in the Canadian Parliament on September 18 that Indian agents killed Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the chief of the Khalistan Tiger Force chief, in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey near Vancouver, on June 18.
India has maintained that it was not involved in the murder and called the allegations“absurd and motivated”.
Since then the relations between the two countries have gone into a downward spiral. Ottawa expelled Pavan Kumar Rai, the head of the Research and Analysis Wing in Canada. In a tit-for-tat move, India has sought parity with Canada in terms of the diplomatic staff posted in each other’s missions.
On Tuesday, the Centre had said that over 200 parliamentarians and other leaders from different countries have confirmed their participation at the summit. Besides Canada, the United States is also skipping the summit as the country is yet to appoint a new speaker.