Amid a severe diplomatic strain between Canada and India over the murder of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a courtesy interaction on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy. The day after this brief exchange, the Canadian PM claimed on Saturday that there was a commitment to work together with India to address some “very important issues.”
Prime Minister Modi held bilateral meetings with the leaders of several countries, including Italy, France, and Japan. However, he only had a courtesy interaction with the Canadian Prime Minister.
PM Modi later wrote a one-line post saying that he “met Canadian PM Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit.”
The courtesy meeting comes amid tensions over Canada’s allegation that New Delhi’s agents were involved in the murder of Nijjar, who had been declared a terrorist by India.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) strongly rejected these allegations from last year as “absurd and motivated.” India has accused Canada of encouraging anti-India elements.
Trudeau did not reveal what transpired during his courtesy meeting with PM Modi on Saturday.
According to PTI, Trudeau told the reporters, “I’m not going to get into the details of this important, sensitive issue that we need to follow up on, but this was a commitment to work together, in the coming times, to deal with some very important issues.”
The Canadian Prime Minister’s Office stated that the leaders had a “brief discussion on the bilateral relationship,” during which Trudeau also congratulated Modi on his re-election.
Ann-Clara Vaillancourt, a spokesperson for Trudeau, mentioned that while there are important issues between the two countries, no further statements will be made at this time, as reported by the Canadian Press news agency.
India, however, did not release a separate statement regarding PM Modi’s interaction with Trudeau.
New Delhi has maintained that the main issue between India and Canada is the latter’s accommodation of pro-Khalistan elements. India expects Ottawa to take strong action against these groups.
At the summit, PM Modi held bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He also met with US President Joe Biden.