‘India would like to resume visa services if working conditions for Indian diplomats improved in Canada’
The News Freedom
New Delhi, October 22
External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, on Sunday said that the India-Canada relations are going through a “difficult phase”. He said that India had to stop issuing visas in Canada because it wasn’t safe for the Indian diplomats to work there amid continuous threats and extremism. Addressing the event, Jaishankar said the clause of parity is very much provided for by the Vienna Convention and India had to invoke it, because of the “continuous interference” in domestic affairs by Canadian personnel.
“India would like to resume visa services if the working conditions for Indian diplomats improved in Canada.” Dr. Jaishankar further said.
Canada had withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Canada-based slain pro-Khalistan terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India slammed Canada’s remarks on withdrawing 41 diplomats, stressing that “India rejects any attempt to portray the implementation of parity as a violation of international norms” on October 20.
While addressing the gathering at the closing plenary session of the Kautilya Forum, Dr. Jaishankar said that a contributor to volatility is conflict in a globalized world, where the consequences spread far beyond the immediate geography. We have already experienced this in Ukraine. The ripple impact of what is now taking place in the Middle-East is not entirely clear. These particular cases may be the headline news, but in different regions, there are smaller happenings whose impact is not inconsequential. In the domain of violence, there is also the less formal version that is very pervasive. “I speak here of terrorism which has long been honed and practiced as a tool of statecraft. The basic takeaway for all of us is that given the seamlessness of our existence, any expectation that conflicts and terrorism can be contained in their impact is not tenable. A big part of this is clearly economic. But do not underestimate the danger of metastasis when it comes to radicalism and extremism. No danger is too distant anymore.” he said.
The External Affair Minister said that it is necessary now to also look at the directly disruptive impact of climate events on the international economy. We have long debated that climate challenges as a trend undermines the well-being of our planet. However, as weather patterns shift, and often catastrophically s, they can affect the nodes of production as well as disrupt the supply chains that emanate from them. Given the increasing frequency of such weather happenings, this is now a risk that we need to build into our calculations.
He further said that the nature of my business is such that challenges will always be at the centre of the conversation. This is not to say that we don’t have outcomes, advancements or even progress. On the contrary, that has been a lot of evidence to show and there is no question, whether we are speaking from the perspective of India or of the world, that we are far better off today than a decade or two or five before. Yet, precisely because every set of solutions throws up a new generation of problems, we constantly dissect, analyze, debate, and sometimes even agonize.” The really good people my business however also imagine, anticipate and foresee. So today, we need both the evolutionary approach as well as the audacious thinking, however contradictory that might seem. And the reason for that is the churning on multiple fronts that the world is going through. Not merely simultaneous stresses, but many with a clear potential for structural change. And at the same time, the overwhelming compulsion to ensure stability, or at least mitigate catastrophes, as the process of change unfolds.” he added.
Giving details, he said the workings of the global economy has itself added to the concerning side of the ledger. The last few years have witnessed rising debt, often resulting from a combination of imprudent choices, unwise borrowings and opaque projects. Market volatility has been difficult for smaller economies with a narrow trade basket to handle. Those highly exposed to tourism or remittances have experienced the consequences of slowdowns very strongly. International financial institutions have not been able to respond adequately, whether due to paucity of resources or lack of priority.
He said that since the Second World War ended and de-colonization proceeded, we have actually seen a broadening of economic production and consumption across geographies. Obviously, this was bound to be uneven and non-linear but overall, few would dispute that the trendline was positive. “This was especially so if one looked at it generation by generation, while of course making provision for some anomalies. As globalization in the incarnation that we know currently got underway, much stronger economic improvements became visible. Entire countries, in fact entire regions saw dramatic reductions in poverty and impressive improvements in living standards. We, in India have experienced this in our own lifetimes” he said.