Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Laos, nearly a year after Trudeau accused India of involvement in the death of a Canadian Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
This is the second meeting between Trudeau and Modi after both leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy earlier in June.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) said 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.
"I emphasised that there is work that we need to do," the CBC News quoted 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," Trudeau told a press conference at Vientiane.
Trudeau's statement comes a day after Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, while testifying at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference on Thursday, called relations with India "tense" and "very difficult" right now, and added that there's still a threat of more killings like Nijjar's on the Canadian soil.
Meanwhile, India firmly denied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claims, sources said that "no substantive discussion" happened during Trudeau's brief encounter with PM Modi. According to official sources, the two leaders merely exchanged greetings when they came face-to-face in Vientiane, reported NDTV.
Canada and India had a major diplomatic row last year after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked New Delhi to the killing of Nijjar.
Canadian authorities had arrested four Indian nationals in connection with Nijjar's murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver on June 18, 2023.
Nijjar, who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015, had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India. He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
India, which had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, has strongly rejected Trudeau's allegations as "absurd" and "motivated."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had earlier called Canada's investigation into alleged Indian involvement a "political compulsion."
India has been maintaining that the main issue between the two countries is that of Canada giving space to pro-Khalistan elements operating from Canadian soil with impunity.
Similarly, the US Justice Department unsealed the charges against an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, in November 2023, accusing him of conspiring with an unidentified Indian government official to kill a US citizen and Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Meanwhile, PM Modi also met several world leaders on the sidelines of ASEAN-India and East Asia summits in Laos.
The prime minister met with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese as well as Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim, saying that it was always a delight to interact with him.
Before this, PM Modi held a meeting with Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit and reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful, safe, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, recognising India and Japan as indispensable partners.
PM Modi also held bilateral talks with Prime Minister of New Zealand Christopher Luxon on Thursday, October 10. This was the first meeting between the two leaders.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi, who was the first leader to speak at the 19th East Asia Summit following the host and the incoming chair Laos, has termed the Summit an "important pillar" of India's Act East Policy.
Modi also said "solutions to problems cannot come from the battlefield", referring to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and called for the restoration of peace and stability in Eurasia and West Asia as soon as possible.
The East Asia Summit refers to the Meeting of Heads of States of the participating countries, which is convened annually. The East Asia Summit was initiated in 2005 with the group convening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
At its inception, the East Asia Summit comprised 16 participating countries, namely ASEAN Member States, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. In 2011, the US and Russia joined at the 6th East Asia Summit in Bali.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)