India-Canada Row: Justin Trudeau, PM Modi met at G7 Summit in Italy
New Delhi:
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said there is a commitment to work with India on some “very important issues” amid a massive diplomatic row.
Justin Trudeau’s remarks come a day after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of G7 Summit in Italy on Friday.
“I’m not going to get into the details of this important, sensitive issue that we need to follow up, but this was a commitment to work together, in the coming times, to deal with some very important issues,” Trudeau told reporters.
PM Modi’s meeting with the Canadian counterpart comes amid strained ties after Canadian authorities alleged India’s involvement in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil.
The two leaders earlier met at the G20 Summit hosted by India in September last year.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was wanted in India on various terror charges, was shot dead outside a Gurdwara in Surrey on June 18, 2023.
Canada’s charge against India sparked a massive row with both countries expelling diplomats of the other country.
Three Indians were arrested in Canada in May in connection with Nijjar’s murder. India has said there are “political interests at work” in the matter and reiterated its position that separatists and extremists have been given political space in the country.
While Trudeau had claimed after the arrests that Canada is “a rule-of-law country” and the investigation into the murder is not limited to the three Indians, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that, despite warnings from Delhi, Canada has been issuing visas to people with links to organised crime.
India has been asserting that its “core issue” with Canada remained that of the space given to separatists, terrorists and anti-India elements in that country.
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