After meeting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the G7 summit, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said India and Canada will work together on a range of important issues.
But Trudeau did not say what those issues were, or whether he raised allegations of Indian government involvement in the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which has been at the heart of uneasy relations between the two countries in recent months.
“I won’t go into the details of this important and sensitive issue that we need to pursue, but this is a commitment to work together going forward to address a very important issue,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference in Savelletri di Fasano, Italy, on Saturday morning.
Modi, who was invited as guest of honor at the annual summit of the world’s richest economies, played a central role at the G7 on Friday, touting on his official YouTube channel bilateral meetings with several leaders, including British Foreign Secretary Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other prominent guests such as Pope Francis.
Later in the evening, PM Modi posted a picture of him shaking hands with PM Trudeau. On X’s social media profilesThe caption reads, “Meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy for the first time since Canada publicly accused the Indian government of involvement in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Trudeau’s office later confirmed the meeting in a brief statement to reporters, describing it as a G7 interaction, in which Trudeau congratulated Modi on his re-election.
“We need to continue to engage with our diverse partners around the world, even as we highlight challenges in upholding the rule of law,” Trudeau said.
It is unclear whether any allegations of foreign interference have arisen.
The allegations surrounding Nijjar’s murder, first asserted by Trudeau shortly after returning from attending the G20 summit in India in September 2023, are just one of the issues straining relations between Ottawa and the Indian government.
India has been named as a foreign actor that has attempted to interfere in Canada’s elections both in the foreign interference hearings chaired by Justice Marie-Josee Hogue and in a recent report by the National Security Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), Canada’s security and intelligence watchdog.
Trudeau did not say whether he had conveyed these concerns to Modi or whether they would prevent Canada from inviting the Indian leader to next year’s G7 summit.
It is also unclear whether the unedited version of the NSICOP report, which is closed to the public due to national security concerns, includes any Liberal MPs among those accused of “knowingly or semi-knowingly” assisting a foreign government.
“The issue of foreign interference is something this government has taken extremely seriously since 2015,” Trudeau said when asked by reporters about his party affiliation.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May, who were able to view a redacted version of the report recently thanks to security clearances, said no party members were named in the document.
“I will allow Singh and May to speak for themselves,” Trudeau said.