Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew home around 1pm on Tuesday afternoon after the technical issue with his aircraft was resolved.
Earlier reports from Canada claimed that RCAF sent a CC-150 Polaris to India to pick up the Prime Minister who has been stranded here for two nights. The delegation was supposed to leave India after the G20 Summit on Sunday night.
"The Canadian Armed Forces continue their best efforts to get the Canadian delegation home. We will keep you updated regularly as the situation evolves," Mohammad Hussain, press secretary to the prime minister, said in a statement on Monday. "Their latest update shows an earliest possible departure of Tuesday late afternoon. The situation remains fluid."
The replacement plane, which initially was routing through Rome on its way to India, has since been diverted to London, reported Toronto-based Global News.
A technician from Canada with the part needed to fix the plane is now flying commercial to India. Though the said part is not fundamental to flying the plane, it is necessary to meet the safety regulations. If the first plane can be fixed before the replacement arrives, it will bring Trudeau and the delegation home, the report added.
Meanwhile, Canadian authorities have defended that the discovery of the technical snag was "evidence that these protocols are effective." A statement from National Defence read: "The safety of all passengers is critical to the RCAF and pre-flight safety checks are a regular part of all of our flight protocols," said the statement. "The discovery of this issue is evidence that these protocols are effective."
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is facing flak from the local press and leadership for the strained visit to India.
The Premier of Saskatchewan, a province in Canada of which India is a huge export market, has accused Trudeau of damaging relations with India and keeping the provinces in the dark about trade talks.
In a letter, the province leaders said Trudeau is picking a fight with India for domestic political gain and risking access to one of his province’s most important export markets. "It is very difficult to come to any other conclusion that your government has once again put its own domestic political interests ahead of the national economic interest — particularly as it relates to exports and trade of western Canadian-produced commodities," Saskatchewan trade minister Jeremy Harrison alleged.
This comes as Indian High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma told reporters that Ottawa sought a pause "within the last month" to ongoing talks for an Early Progress Trade Agreement.
"It is unacceptable to our government that we first heard of a pause in the EPTA negotiations through the media one week ago, and have received no explanation from (the) Government of Canada after that," reads Harrison’s letter, dated Sept. 8.
"Clearly, what your government has done has put the already strained Canada-India relationship in even further peril after some improvement following the prime minister’s disastrous trip to India in 2018," he wrote.
