G7 Joint Statement Skips Canadian PM’s Allegation Against India on Nijjar Killing

The G7 block did not insert the allegation of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s charge of “credible links” of killers of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar with the Indian Government in a joint statement issued on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

There is no mention of the Nijjar killing or India in the statement released by the new Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko, as Chair of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

At the meeting in New York on Tuesday, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the European Union slammed Russia, China, the Indo-Pacific, North Korea and Niger but there was no mention of India.

According to the US media, most G7 countries rejected the weeks-long lobbying by Trudeau asking them to raise Nijjar’s killing with India at the highest levels of government and issue a joint statement condemning it as an infringement of international norms.

Only Australia said it had raised concerns with high levels of the Indian Government and its Foreign Office regarding the issue.

The UK Foreign Office’s expression of concern was tamed down by its PM Rishi Sunak.

Trudeau had also hoped some Five Eye countries, if not the G7, would side with him in his tirade against India. “However, all the Western allies of Canada, including the US, declined his request and shrugged it off. After trying in vain to rally the West against India and in the backdrop of his disastrous India visit, Trudeau levelled the allegations alone in Parliament,” reported the Washington Post.

Canada, the UK, the US, Australia, and New Zealand are members of ‘Five Eyes’ which seamlessly share intelligence among themselves.