Trudeau says co-operation coming with Modi, but short on specifics

India and Canada will co-operate on a range of important issues, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said after speaking to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the G7 summit.

But Trudeau would not specify what those issues are, or whether he raised the allegations about the Indian government's involvement in the killing of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which is at the centre of a rocky relationship between the two countries for the last several months.

"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 journalists at a news conference in Savelletri Di Fasano, Italy, on Saturday morning. 

Invited as a guest at the annual summit of the world's wealthiest economies, Modi took centre stage at the G7 on Friday, his official YouTube channel publicizing bilateral meetings he held with several leaders, including his British counterpart Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, and other high-profile guests such as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Francis. 

Later in the evening, Modi posted a picture showing him shaking hands with Trudeau on his social media profile on X, simply with the caption "Met Canadian PM Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit."

Trudeau's office acknowledged the encounter afterward in a brief statement to journalists, characterizing it as an interaction on the margins of the G7, during which Trudeau congratulated Modi on his recent re-election.

"We need to continue to engage with various partners around the world, with various partners, even as we highlight challenges as we stand up for the rule of law," Trudeau said. 

The allegation around Nijjar's killing, which Trudeau first made in September 2023 shortly after returning from attending the G20 summit in India, only one issue that has strained relations between Ottawa and New Delhi.

India's name has also come up as a foreign state actor that tried interfering in Canadian elections, both at the public inquiry into foreign interference chaired by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, and in a recent report filed by the the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), an oversight body for Canadian security intelligence agencies.

Trudeau did not specify whether he raised these concerns with Modi, either, nor whether they would prevent him from extending an invitation to the Indian leader at the G7 next year, which will be hosted by Canada.

It also remains unclear whether the NSICOP report's unredacted version, hidden from the public eye due to national security concerns, named any Liberal MPs as the parliamentarians it accused of "wittingly or semi-wittingly" helping out foreign governments. 

"The issue of foreign interference is one that this government has taken incredibly seriously since 2015," Trudeau said when asked by journalists about his own caucus. 

Both NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party co-leader Elizabeth May recently gained access to the redacted report thanks to their security clearance. They said their caucus members were not named in the document. 

"I will allow Mr. Singh and Ms. May to speak for themselves," Trudeau said.