New Delhi: Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had met the Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly in an unpublicised meeting in Washington two weeks ago, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, October 11.Both countries, India and Canada, have so far, not commented on the claims of a secret meeting, which would have been the highest-level meeting after Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau went public with his bombshell allegations.On September 19, Trudeau stood in the lower house of the Canadian parliament and claimed that there were “credible allegations” of Indian government agents being involved in the killing of a Canadian national, whom New Delhi considers as a pro-Khalistani terrorist. India and Canada both expelled a diplomat each, while New Delhi also took the additional step to stop visa services for Canadian citizens.Canadian foreign minister Melanie Joly had said last week that Ottawa had been in backroom talks with New Delhi. “We are in contact with the government of India. We take Canadian diplomats’ safety very seriously and we will continue to engage privately because we think diplomatic conversations are best when they remain private,” she said.However, The Financial Times reported that a few days before Joly spoke of ongoing backroom talks, she had already met with the Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.“Several days earlier, Joly also held a secret meeting with India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar in Washington, said people familiar with the situation,” said the FT report.When contacted, the Ministry of External Affairs have not commented on the news report that Jaishankar and Joly had an unannounced meeting. The Canadian high commission in India declined to comment.The Indian minister had been in the United States for over 10 days, with the first part of his visit taking place in New York – where he took part in the UN General Assembly plenary – and the second part in Washington from September 25 to 28.Till he reached Washington, Jaishankar had not made any official remarks on the Canadian allegations. The Indian response dismissing the allegations as “biased” and “motivated” had been made by the MEA spokesperson through a press release and the weekly media briefing in the initial days. This was in contrast to the press statements made by his counterparts in the members of the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing network calling for India to join the Canadian investigation.Jaishankar addressed the diplomatic dispute for the first time on September 26 at an interactive discussions in Washington-based Council for Foreign Relations (CFR). “We told the Canadians that this is not the Government of India’s policy,” he said. Jaishankar had also reiterated the Indian position that New Delhi was willing to look at any specific information on the matter.While there has been no official confirmation of any “secret meeting”, Canada has continued to expand its advocacy for India to take the allegations seriously.Earlier this week, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had called up leaders of United Arab Emirates and Jordan to discuss the aftermath of the massive attack by Hamas in Israel. He also took the opportunity to raise the diplomatic dispute, asserting that India has to abide by the Vienna Convention for Diplomatic Relations.After Trudeau had pointed finger at India publicly, Canada had announced that it was going to voluntarily withdraw some officials over concerns of threats from social media. India had insisted that the exercise was initiated after New Delhi sought “parity” in diplomatic presence, as Canada had a much higher number of diplomats stationed in the South Asian country.DiplomatsThe FT report also stated no Canadian diplomats have left India despite the fact that India had given a deadline to 41 diplomats to leave by October 10, noting that their diplomatic immunity would be revoked otherwise.It is noteworthy that India has never announced this deadline for removal of diplomats publicly. At last week’s media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had refused to go “into details of diplomatic conversations” when asked specifically about the alleged deadline of October 10.Therefore, there is no clarity if there is any actual deadline which was not adhered to by the Canadians.Canadian television channels CTV and CBC had both reported on October 6 that Canada had already relocated “lower-level diplomatic staff” posted outside of Delhi to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. While CBC characterised the quantity as “some”, CTV had said that “majority” of the Canadian diplomats working outside Delhi had been sent outside the country. Canada has three consulates – in Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai. Besides, it has trade commissioner service offices in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.The FT report also said that India had invoked the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations to bolster its demand for “parity”. The chair of Canadian senate committee on foreign affairs and international trade Peter Boehm said that there was nothing in the treaty that refers to parity or the unilateral determination of the number of diplomats. “The Indians are way out in front,” Boehm told the FT.