If you are looking for drama, there is no other place to look than the G20 summit that took place in early September this year. Even amidst China’s President Xi’s deliberate absence and the painfully obvious little progress made on the issue of debt, the apparent tension between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi trumps all to top off the list. 

The G20 summit garnered substantial praise to India’s successful organization. Hosting 19 countries, the event also included a new member this year, the African Union. The summit, whose main theme was “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” brought together leaders across the world to focus on important issues such as food security, climate and energy, health, media digitization, gender equality, and much more. In the end, the G20 resolved with a strong declaration which included using softer language regarding the Ukraine War, setting up ports and rail links between the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe, and incremental progress on climate change. Yet, despite the growing accolades for the G20 summit, just days later PM Trudeau began to stir the pot. The relationship between India and Canada has been fraught since 2015. However, according to Reuters, it hit rock bottom when Trudeau released an explosive statement in Parliament claiming that there are “credible allegations” that agents in India’s governments were behind the killing of Sikh Canadian separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June of this year. Nijar led a group in Canada that has been pushing for a separatist Sikh homeland in India called “Khalistan”. Of course, India denied these claims.

According to Time, Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh population outside India. The country holds around 770,000 Sikhs–2.1% of the country’s population. Tensions between the two nations began to emerge in 2015 when PM Trudeau appointed four Sikh ministers to his cabinet. In the past, Indian diplomats raised concerns over Sikh Canadians advocating for the Khalistan movement. Just last year, a Hindu Temple in Canada was vandalized with graffiti that read “Death to India” in Urdu and “Khalistan.” These events were possibly the height of Canada-India tensions. And although not perfect, the two nation’s relationship improved and was in a good place until a few months ago. Both countries shared concerns about China and began to create ties with each other in opposition to Beijing, which led to mutual understanding and cooperation.

But, of course, a relationship is not a relationship without its occasional twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. To everyone’s surprise (or maybe not), the diplomatic dogfight began. Just months before the allegations in June, India’s Minister of External Affairs, S. Jaishankar warned Canada that giving space to separatist Sikhs would not end well for the relationship between the two countries. Ten days later, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was found dead outside a Sikh temple in Canada. Of course, Canada blamed India, and subsequently, on September 1st, Canada paused trade negotiations with India and canceled a trade mission to the country as well.

With India becoming a prominent world leader on the world stage with an incredible amount of progress made in their Indo-Pacific strategy this year, PM Trudeau’s allegations are ill-timed. However, this isn’t Trudeau’s first rodeo getting stuck in similar messes. As CNN states, in previous years, Trudeau’s slow actions towards allegations of a Chinese attempt to meddle in Canada’s 2019 and 2020 elections, the arrest of Chinese Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in 2018 for alleged bank fraud, and evasion of economic sanctions against Iran have put Canada in a difficult place to sustain ties. With India’s gradual replacement of China on the world power stage and growing relations between the US and India, Trudeau will have to fight just to keep afloat as a middle power. Whether the allegations against India were a diversion tactic to steer away the prying eyes of the public on Trudeau’s slow response to allegations against China or simply a fight or flight response for the prime minister, we will never know. But one thing is certain: Trudeau has twisted himself in some pretty serious consequences of his actions, and the world is waiting to see what happens next.

Disclaimer: This is just an opinion. This article is in no way representing my stance over the Sikh’s Khalistan movement. It is simply my analysis on Canada’s and India’s relationship.

Information retrieved from CNN, The Time Magazine, AP News, G20.org