OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada on Wednesday pressed India to cooperate in an investigation of the homicide of a Sikh separatist in British Columbia after the U.S. revealed it had foiled an assassination try towards a Sikh separatist on its soil.

The U.S. Justice Department stated earlier on Wednesday it was charging a 52-year-old man who had labored with an Indian authorities worker on a plot to assassinate a New York City resident who advocated for a Sikh sovereign state in northern India.

The U.S. prices come about two months after Canada stated there have been “credible” allegations linking Indian brokers to the homicide of Sikh separatist chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in a Vancouver suburb, in June. India has rejected that allegation.

“The news coming out of the United States further underscores what we’ve been talking about from the very beginning, which is that India needs to take this seriously,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed reporters in Ottawa.

“The Indian government needs to work with us to ensure that we’re getting to the bottom of this,” he stated.

Earlier on Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly urged India to be extra forthcoming within the ongoing homicide investigation. Canadian authorities have but to cost anybody for the killing of Nijjar.

Referring to the Indian authorities, Joly instructed reporters: “Clearly we expect more cooperation on their part and more engagement on their part.”

Both the United States and Canada need to construct higher ties with India to counter Chinese affect within the Indo-Pacific area, and the allegations undermine that effort.

Neither New Delhi nor Ottawa seems prone to take dramatic steps to reconcile quickly as Canada’s homicide investigation proceeds and Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for Indian nationwide elections by May.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sandra Maler)

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