‘Even double standards are mild words…’: EAM Jaishankar slams Canada over diplomatic standoff

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while speaking at the ‘World Summit 2024: The India Century’ organised by a media house on Monday slammed Canada for applying inconsistent standards in diplomatic relations amid ongoing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
He pointed out the contrasting ways in which Canadian and Indian diplomats are treated in each other’s countries.

“So apparently, the license that they give themselves is totally different from the kind of restrictions that they impose on diplomats in Canada. When we tell them you have people openly threatening leaders of India, diplomats of India. Their answer is freedom of speech. When Indian journalists make social media comments, if you threaten the Indian High Commissioner, he is supposed to accept it as freedom of speech. But if an Indian journalist says the Canadian High Commissioner walked out of South Block looking very grumpy, it is foreign interference. Even double standards are mild words for it. There is this thing that we will do differently at home. We will do it differently abroad. We will do it our way, but that doesn’t apply to you. I think these are the larger adjustments which have to happen in this changing world,” he said.

When the interviewer asked Jaishankar about Canada before the US, he made a tongue-in-cheek remark on how equations between the West and the non-West are changing. He apprised that they need a wake-up call to understand the shaking up of international order

“Some time ago you would have said we will deal with Canada later, let’s talk about the US. Now for some inexplicable reason, you are saying we will talk about the US later, let’s talk about Canada first,” he laughed.

He said that the reason behind it is that after 1945, the world order was west-centric and it is changing now.

“To some extent, I think there are there is a general Western issue and to some extent, a very specific Canada issue…The world order after 1945 was heavily Western. What has happened in the last 20-25 years is that there is a rebalancing, a multipolarity. Many non-Western countries have a bigger share, a bigger contribution, a bigger role and a bigger influence which will naturally come. So the equations in a way between the West and the non-West is changing and it’s not easy to adjust to that,” he said.

Jaishankar said that today, larger countries like India and China are expressing themselves, hence there are frictions between them and the West.

“Today, when the natural diversity of the world has started to express itself when many more large countries like India or China have points of view and positions to take, there will be contestations, there will be frictions, there will be arguments, so it won’t be so smooth. That’s a larger picture,” he said.

Jaishankar said that Canada alleges ‘foreign interference’ when Indian journalists report on the Canadian High Commissioner, while their diplomats collect information and profile police et al.

“Where Canada is concerned, I think there are some very specific issues. Canada asked us to subject our High Commissioner to a police inquiry and we chose to withdraw the High Commissioner and diplomats. They seem to have a problem if Indian diplomats are even trying to make efforts to find out what is happening in Canada on matters which directly pertain to their welfare and security. But look what happens in India. Canadian diplomats have no problem going around collecting information on our military, police, profiling people, targeting people to be stopped in Canada,” he said. (ANI)