'India ain't football you kick around': Ex-Pentagon official Rubin on ties with Canada; calls Khalistan, Nijjar issue 'Trudeau's fictions'

NEW DELHI: Ex-Pentagon official Michael Rubin criticised Justin Trudeau's approach towards India and said that it was "not a football which you kick around but an ally you strive to embrace". Terming the Khalistan and Hardeep Singh Nijjar issues- the core reasons behind souring of India-Canada ties- "Trudeau's fictions", Rubin appreciated Mark Carney for making an effort to rebuild ties with India."India is not a football which you kick around. It is an ally to be embraced", Rubin said in an exclusive interview with ANI."The grievances about Hardeep Singh Nijjar and the Khalistan movement were not real. They were exaggerations that Justin Trudeau amplified...Justin Trudeau may have wanted so much to appease radical Sikh extremists in various constituencies that he was willing to take an organised crime hit between various Sikh groups and mafias and blame an outside power for it, rather than acknowledge the problem and the fault was Canada's alone.

That is Justin Trudeau's problem. But now that Justin Trudeau is gone and likely will never return to power, Prime Minister Carney is taking a sober approach and recognising that he is not going to be tied to Justin Trudeau's fictions," he added.Contrasting Trudeau's approach towards India with that of current Canadian PM Mark Carney's, he said, "Mark Carney is working on repairing the relationship rather than following Justin Trudeau down the rabbit hole already shows that Prime Minister Carney is a much more serious person than the former Prime Minister of Canada...Canada

now needs to demonstrate its good faith.""Canada's relationship with India, especially under Justin Trudeau, was not principled. It was all virtue signalling and politics. The fact of the matter is that India is crucial to Canada, and Canada needs to decide whether ultimately it's going to side with the democracies like India and the United States, or whether it's going to posture the way Justin Trudeau did and allow China, which also has significant interests in Canada," he added.Talking about Carney's invite to PM Narendra Modi for G7 summit, Rubin said, "Canadian PM Mark Carney originally was a banker. He understands the importance of India. Justin Trudeau was a politician who peddled in image and imagination, and therefore it makes sense that Carney wants to restore maturity to the relationship.""It makes sense for Prime Minister Modi to show that the problem was not Canada itself, but the immaturity and unprofessionalism of Justin Trudeau," he added.Canada will host the upcoming G7 summit from June 15 to 17, gathering the world's top industrialized nations—France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Japan, the US, and Canada—alongside the EU and international bodies such as the IMF, World Bank, and UN. The summit will focus on key global issues, including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising tensions in West Asia.