Canada announced on Thursday that it was forced to repatriate 41 diplomats to their posts in India after New Delhi threatened to strip them of diplomatic immunity amid a crisis between the two countries.

“We have taken the decision to arrange the safe departure of these 41 diplomats and their families,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said, clarifying that 21 Canadian diplomats remain in India.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” she added.

Melanie Jolie said that Ottawa does not intend to respond to the removal of the immunity of Indian diplomats, so as not to “escalate the situation”.

“If we adopt this way of doing things, no diplomat, wherever he is, will be safe on the planet. That is why Canada will not take the same approach as India,” she added.

Marked by mutual expulsions of diplomats, India-Canada relations soured in late September when Canada spoke of possible Indian government involvement in the June killing of a Sikh leader near Vancouver.

Calling Ottawa’s accusations “absurd”, New Delhi has since advised its citizens not to travel to certain regions of Canada and has “temporarily” stopped processing visa applications from Canadian citizens to India.

India has often complained about the activism of the Sikh diaspora abroad, particularly from Canada, which New Delhi believes is likely to revive the separatist movement with massive financial aid.

Canada is the country with the largest number of Sikhs outside of India.

The Indian state of Punjab, which is roughly 58% Sikh and 39% Hindu, was rocked by a violent Sikh separatist movement in the 1980s and early 1990s that left thousands dead.

This diplomatic tension is being watched closely in other parts of the world, especially in Washington.

The issue is a sensitive one for the United States, a neighbor and historic ally of Canada, which, under the influence of President Joe Biden, has moved closer to India’s government led by Narendra Modi.