Amid the diplomatic sparring and souring of bilateral ties in the wake of Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s allegation of Indian involvement in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the Special Envoy and Coordinator, Global Engagement Center, James Rubin said the standoff was a “tricky subject” as he sought cooperation into the investigation as far as it goes.

During a virtual press briefing on October 5, the US special envoy said, “This is a tricky subject. Let me just say that we support Canada’s investigation. We want everyone to help – including the Indian Government – help advance the investigation into this terrible assassination, and we would urge everyone to cooperate and to take the investigation as far as it goes.”

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Amid the diplomatic spat, New Delhi suspended the visa operations to Canada and sought a reduction in Canadian diplomatic presence in India citing “interference in internal matters”.

Addressing the press briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “Given the much higher presence of diplomats or diplomatic presence here…and their continued interference in our internal matters, we have sought parity in our respective diplomatic presence. Discussions are ongoing on the modalities of achieving this.”

“Given that Canadian diplomatic presence is higher, we would assume that there would be a reduction,” he added.

Asked if the reduction in the number of Canadian diplomats could result in a decrease in the number of visas issued by the Canadian High Commission in India, Bagchi said, “It’s up to the Canadian side, who they choose to staff the High Commission with…our concerns are related to ensuring parity in diplomatic presence.”

Earlier, during a debate in the Canadian Parliament, Trudeau claimed his country’s national security officials had reasons to believe that “agents of the Indian government” carried out the killing of the “Canadian citizen” Nijjar, who also served as the president of Surrey’s Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara.

On whether such tensions as the one between New Delhi and Ottawa could breed disinformation campaigns, Rubin said it is an area that is ripe for “information manipulation”, adding that China has “definitely made a big effort” to interfere in the domestic affairs of Canada.

“Let me just say in our report, if you take a look at it, there are a few examples given about particular Chinese interference in Canadian domestic politics and in their universities and ways in which they’ve sought to manipulate their individuals, coerce individuals, and discredit individuals. And those accounts are in the report, and I urge you to take a look at that. This is obviously an area that is ripe for information manipulation,” he said.

“I haven’t seen any specific evidence of the Canadian-Indian issue, but I do know that China has made a big effort to interfere in the domestic affairs of Canada through the ways I mentioned. And it’s particularly ironic, because you may remember that for decades China was the loudest demander that nobody interfere in their domestic affairs, and yet when it comes to information manipulation, when it comes to interfering in the politics in Canada, when it comes to the South China Sea, where they’re interfering in the territorial waters of countries around the region, when it comes to the famous balloon incident – suddenly sovereignty is not so important to the Chinese Government,” he added.

Notably, the Global Engagement Center is part of the US State Department. Rubin has been claiming Chinese interference in Ottawa’s politics, citing a new report by the US State Department that was released last week.

“This is the first comprehensive U.S. State Department analysis of how Beijing employs these deceptive and coercive methods as it attempts to distort the global information space. It’s doing so to advance its geopolitical objectives,” Rubin told media persons.

“The Chinese have a phoney persona called Yi Fan, which we talk about in this report, who purports to be an international affairs commentator when we know full well he’s a foreign affairs operative for their foreign ministry. So that’s the hard part. I can’t tell you for sure whether that will happen in Canada,” he added.