PM Modi and Justin Trudeau meet at Laos

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau.
| Photo Credit: AP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Justin Trudeau met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos, almost a year after his Canadian counterpart accused India of involvement in the death of a Canadian Khalistani separatist.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) said Mr. Trudeau described the meeting as a “brief exchange” when the two leaders met during the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Vientiane, Laos held on Thursday (October 10, 2024).

“I emphasised that there is work that we need to do,” the CBC News quoted Mr. Trudeau as saying.

“I won’t go into details about what we talked about but what I’ve said many times is that the safety of Canadians and upholding the rule of law is one of the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian government and that’s what I’ll stay focused on,” Mr. Trudeau told a press conference at Vientiane.

The ties between India and Canada were strained last year after Mr. Trudeau’s allegations in September of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing outside a gurdwara in Surrey city on June 18, 2023.

India, which had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, has strongly rejected Mr. Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated.”