India’s reaction has come after the visit of the US Ambassador to Pakistan to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). India has said that the matter has been discussed with America and concern has been expressed. Let us tell you that a big controversy has arisen after the visit of US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blom to Gilgit-Baltistan and talks with the local people there. When asked about the visit of the American diplomat, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that our position on the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir being an integral part of India is well known. We urge the international community to respect our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Let us tell you that as the controversy escalated, a similar point was made to US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti regarding the visit of his fellow diplomat to PoK. Garcetti said that it would not be right for me to react to the US Ambassador to Pakistan.
Garcetti further said that the Jammu and Kashmir issue should be resolved bilaterally by India and Pakistan and not any third party, including America, should have any say in the matter. It is noteworthy that Blom made a six-day ‘secret’ visit to Gilgit Baltistan in PoK. The details of his visit were kept secret by the Embassy and Pakistan government officials. According to Pakistan daily Dawn, Blom visited various areas and met local and government officials in Gilgit. Last year, Blom visited Muzaffarabad where he built the Quaid-e-Azam Memorial Post Office. India had raised this issue with the US side as PoK was mentioned as ‘AJK’ in the ambassador’s statement. In the month of April last year, US Congress member Ilhan Omar had visited PoK, which was strongly condemned by New Delhi.
Canada should reduce its diplomatic staff
Apart from this, India on Thursday said that Canada should reduce its diplomatic presence in the country to achieve parity in numbers and alleged that some Canadian diplomats are involved in interfering in New Delhi’s internal affairs. This is a clear indication of the continuing deterioration in relations between the two countries over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in June. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that discussions were underway on modalities to reach mutual diplomatic presence and gave a clear indication that India would not review its position on the issue.
India asked Canada to recall several dozen diplomats from its missions in the country, days after a diplomatic row erupted over Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations linking Indian agents to the killing of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June. . India strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations related to Nijjar’s murder. In his weekly press briefing, Bagchi said that as we have mentioned earlier, given the very high presence of Canadian diplomats here and their interference in our internal affairs, we have sought parity in our respective diplomatic presence. Discussions are underway on ways to achieve this. He said that since the Canadian diplomatic presence in India is much larger than India’s presence in Canada, it is assumed that there will be a reduction.
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