By Rod McGuirk | The Independent | Australia |
Australia’s foreign minister said Tuesday she raised allegations with her Indian counterpart that India has targeted Sikh activists in Canada.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she discussed the Canadian allegations with Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar while he was in the Australian capital, Canberra.
India has denied Canada’s allegation that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered the targeting of Sikh activists inside Canada.
Wong said her message to the Sikh community was that people have a right to be safe and respected in Australia, regardless of who they are.
SEE ALSO: India’s disinformation campaign against Canada’s Sikhs
“We’ve made clear our concerns about the allegations under investigation. We’ve said that we respect Canada’s judicial process,” Wong said at a news conference with Jaishankar.
“We convey our views to India as you would expect us to do and we have a principled position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and also, frankly, the sovereignty of all countries,” she added.
Jaishankar said Canada has put Indian diplomats under surveillance, which was “unacceptable.”
“Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics,” he said.
Australia has close intelligence-sharing ties with Canada as members of the Five Eyes alliance that also includes the United States, Britain and New Zealand.
Over the weekend, India officially protested Canada’s allegation of Sikh activists being targeted there as “absurd and baseless.”
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