Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that it doesn’t change India’s views about the underlying situation, now that the case has been lodged….reports Asian Lite News
The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit filed by pro-Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as an “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations” over the ‘assassination’ attempt against the Indian government in the US.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that it doesn’t change India’s views about the underlying situation, now that the case has been lodged.
“As we’ve said earlier, these are completely unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations. Now that this particular case has been lodged. It doesn’t change our views about the underlying situation. I would only invite your attention to the person behind this particular case whose antecedents are well known,” the Foreign Secretary said in a press briefing on Thursday ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.
A US court has summoned the Indian government after Pannun filed a civil lawsuit, alleging a plot to murder him. The summons by the US District Court for Southern District of New York names Government of India, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, former R&AW chief Samant Goel, RAW agent Vikram Yadav, and Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta. The summons asks New Delhi and those named to file a reply within 21 days.
The Centre is yet to respond to the summons. Pannu’s X handle, on which he shared a copy of the summons, has been withheld.
In November, the UK newspaper Financial Times reported that the US had thwarted a plot to kill Pannun, who heads the radical outfit, Sikhs for Justice, and holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. Officials in the Joe Biden administration later confirmed this.
In its first response, the External Affairs Ministry said it is a “matter of concern” and stressed that India has launched a high-level probe.
“As regards the case against an individual that has been filed in a US court, allegedly linking him to an Indian official, this is a matter of concern. We have said that this is also contrary to government policy,” then MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
In May this year, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said India is investigating the matter, but stressed that it would not impact the “upward trajectory” of India-US ties.
“The United States brought to our attention certain information in good faith because we also believe some of it has implications for our own system. We are investigating it. But I do not think the fundamental course of the upward trajectory of India-US is impacted by this at all,” he said.
Modi, Trump meeting yet to be fixed
A day after former US President Donald Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s upcoming visit to the US from September 21-23, the Indian government said a meeting between the two has not yet been scheduled.
“PM Modi is a fantastic man and is coming to meet me next week,” Trump had said two days back.
“We are currently trying to schedule several meetings of Prime Minister, based on the time available for the meetings. So at this moment I cannot specifically tell you whether meetings have been fixed or not. We are looking from all viewpoints, considering how much time we have with whom the meetings can be arranged. We will update once the meeting are fixed,” said Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Thursday.
Modi will take part in the Quad Summit during his visit to the US. The White House said China is going to be high on the agenda of the summit.
“All regional, international, geopolitical situations will be on the agenda before the Quad leaders and the essence from the discussions will be reflected in the joint statement that would be issued. All key challenges confronting the international community in so far as aspects related to development, peace, security will be discussed by the leaders,” Misri said.
A number of bilateral meetings will be held between PM Modi and other world leaders. PM Modi will not be meeting the Bangladesh interim government chairman Prof Mohammad Yunus. The MEA also denied that they had received any request from Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy for a meeting with PM Modi.
Modi will be leaving for the US on September 21 and will first attend the Quad Summit in Delaware where he would meet the other Quad leaders — US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
This will be President Biden and Kishida’s last Quad Summit. India will host the next Quad Summit in 2025 with the next US President – which could either be Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
On September 22, Modi will attend a diaspora event at Nassau Coliseum in New York. The arrangements for this event have been made privately by the diaspora, so there is no clarity on who will be invited. On September 23, Modi will address the Summit of the Future at New York.
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