Canada evacuates diplomats from India, moves them to Singapore, Malaysia

Canada has relocated a majority of its diplomats working outside New Delhi to Malaysia and Singapore after India gave a deadline of October 10, asking Ottawa to recall its diplomats from the country to maintain parity in terms of the number of its staff working in each other’s territory, CTV news reported on Friday.

The decision comes amid a diplomatic standoff between India and Canada over the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist by New Delhi. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau claimed to have credible evidence to believe that agents of the Indian government were involved in Nijjar’s killing.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson on September 21 said they have informed the Canadian government of having parity in strength in the two countries’ mutual diplomatic presence. “Their number is very much higher than ours in Canada. I assume there will be a reduction from the Canadian side,” he had stated.