India on Friday strongly responded to Canada’s statement on the withdrawal of some of its diplomats following India’s prod and said no international norm was violated seeking parity in the mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa.

“We reject any attempt to portray the implementation of parity as a violation of international norms,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

“We have seen the Statement by the Government of Canada on October 19 regarding Canadian diplomatic presence in India. The state of our bilateral relations, the much higher number of Canadian diplomats in India, and their continued interference in our internal affairs warrant a parity in mutual diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Ottawa,” the MEA statement read.

“We have been engaged with the Canadian side on this over the last month in order to work out the details and modalities of its implementation. Our actions in implementing this parity are fully consistent with Article 11.1 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which states the following: “In the absence of specific agreement as to the size of the mission, the receiving State may require that the size of a mission be kept within limits considered by it to be reasonable and normal, having regard to circumstances and conditions in the receiving State and to the needs of the particular mission”,” it further said.

Canada accused India of violating Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as it confirmed that 41 diplomats have been shifted out of India.  The statement issued from Canada’s foreign affairs ministry blamed India of “unilaterally revoking diplomatic privileges and immunities” contrary to “international law, including the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”.

“This action taken by India is completely unreasonable and escalatory. India accredited each and every one of the Canadian diplomats they are now expelling. And all of those diplomats were carrying out their duties in good faith, and to the greater benefit of both countries,” the statement read.

“Diplomatic immunities should be respected and cannot be unilaterally revoked by a host country. If we allow this norm to be broken, no diplomat anywhere would be safe. As such, the Government of Canada will continue to respect diplomatic norms and not reciprocate this action,” Canada said.