US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged India to cooperate with a Canadian investigation into the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar during a meeting with Indian Foreign minister S Jaishankar on Thursday, a US official said.
“Blinken raised the Canadian matter in his meeting, (and) urged the Indian government to cooperate with Canada’s investigation,” the US official said.
However, the US State Department’s formal statement on its website after Blinken met Jaishankart made no mention of Nijjar’s murder or of Canada as a whole. Jaishankar met Blinken on Thursday afternoon in Washington.
A short State Department summary of the issues discussed in the meeting between Blinken and Jaishankar, formally called a readout, listed points like India’s G20 presidency, the creation of an India-Middle East-Europe corridor, and topics like defence, space, and clean energy.
India has strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations and said “allegations of Government of India’s involvement in any act of violence in Canada are absurd and motivated.”
Blinken and US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the United States was “deeply concerned” about the allegations raised by Trudeau.
