Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau on meeting with Prime Minister Modi | Image:PTI

Bari (Italy), Jun 15 (PTI) Amid serious tensions in bilateral ties, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said there was a commitment to work with India to address some “very important issues”, after he Prime Minister Narendra had met Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

Modi had posted an image on social media on Friday showing the two leaders shaking hands, with the one-liner reading: “met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the G7 summit”.

The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Puglia, southern Italy, is the first amid strained diplomatic relations over pro-Khalistani extremism after Trudeau claimed Canadian authorities are “actively pursuing credible allegations” regarding to the involvement of the Indian government in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist.

Last year’s Canadian allegations were strongly rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA) as “absurd and motivated”.

“I’m not going to go into the details of this important, sensitive issue that we need to follow up on, but this was a commitment to work together in the near future to address some very important issues,” Trudeau told reporters. during a press conference in Savelletri Di Fasano in Italy on Saturday, the final day of the three-day G7 summit.

The last meeting between the two leaders took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit hosted by India in September.

Shortly after the meeting on Friday evening, the Canadian Prime Minister’s Office said the leaders had a “brief discussion on the bilateral relationship,” during which Trudeau also congratulated Modi on his re-election.

“Of course there are important issues between our two countries at this time. Please understand that we will not be making any further statements at this time,” spokesperson Ann-Clara Vaillancourt told the Canadian Press news agency.

India has maintained that the main issue between the two countries is that Canada should give space to pro-Khalistan elements operating with impunity from Canadian soil.

India has repeatedly expressed its “deep concerns” to Canada and New Delhi expects Ottawa to take strong action against these elements.

Nijjar’s murder is being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Four Indian nationals have been arrested by the RCMP in this connection.

Modi’s meeting with Trudeau came at the end of a busy day of bilateral meetings for the prime minister, including with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. hosted the summit. He also held talks with other world leaders gathered for the summit, including US President Joe Biden.

Prime Minister Modi joined the leaders of Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritania, Tunisia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to co-convene with Pope Francis the Outreach Session on Artificial Intelligence, Energy, Africa and the to address the Mediterranean region, at the invitation of Meloni.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)