(Ottawa) Washington et Londres se rangent derrière Ottawa, reprochant à l’Inde d’avoir révoqué unilatéralement l’immunité diplomatique prévue à la Convention de Vienne à une quarantaine de diplomates canadiens.
Les deux proches alliés du Canada donnent ainsi raison à Justin Trudeau, qui a dénoncé vendredi matin la décision du gouvernement indien, en évoquant un dangereux précédent en matière de relations diplomatiques internationales.
« Révoquer de façon unilatérale la protection diplomatique de [41] Canadian diplomats is something that must concern all countries in the world,” lamented the Prime Minister on the sidelines of an announcement on housing in Brampton, Ontario.
“If it becomes permissible for a country to simply revoke diplomatic protections for diplomats, the world becomes more and more uncertain,” he continued.
And that’s without taking into account that cutting Canadian diplomatic missions by two-thirds of their staff will have very concrete consequences on the movement of goods and people, he argued.
“The impacts are very real for the millions of people who come and go between [l’Inde et le Canada] : for students, for family members, for weddings, for businesses, for the growing commercial ties between our two countries,” he explained in English.
The Indian government’s action makes it “incredibly difficult” for normal life to continue “for millions of people, in India and Canada”, and it does so by violating a “very basic principle of diplomacy”, continued the Indian government. Prime Minister.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced Thursday that Canada had evacuated 41 of its 62 diplomats to India for security reasons. She also made it known that Ottawa did not intend to impose retaliation on New Delhi.
The United States and the United Kingdom behind Canada
The US State Department has sided with Canada.
“We are concerned about the departure of Canadian diplomats from India in response to the request made by the Indian government to Canada to significantly reduce its diplomatic presence in India,” declared its spokesperson, Matthew Miller in a press release sent at the start of the evening.
“To resolve disputes, you need diplomats on the ground. We urged the Indian government not to insist on a reduction in Canada’s diplomatic presence and to cooperate with the ongoing Canadian investigation,” he added.
The United Kingdom also showed its “disagreement”.
“The unilateral removal of privileges and immunities that ensure the safety and security of diplomats is not consistent with the principles or effective operation of the Vienna Convention,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said.
India, meanwhile, has defended its diplomatic actions.
India’s foreign ministry argued Friday that its decision to reduce the number of Canadian diplomats in India, which it said was higher than India’s number in Canada, respected diplomatic conventions.
The relationship between the Trudeau government and the Modi government, already very cold, became frosty after the Prime Minister alleged on September 18 that New Delhi had a link to the assassination, on Canadian soil, of a Canadian citizen from Sikh faith, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
With Agence France-Presse