What Justin Trudeau said after meeting with PM Narendra Modi in Italy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Apulia, Italy. (PTI)

In midst of a severe diplomatic strain between Canada and India over the murder of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia, the country's prime minister, Justin Trudeau met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a courtesy interaction on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy. A day after the brief exchange, the Canadian PM on Saturday claimed there was a commitment to work together with India to deal with some "very important issues".

PM Modi held bilateral meetings with the leaders of several countries, including Italy, France and Japan. However, he held only a courtesy interaction with the Canadian PM.

PM Modi later wrote a one-line post informing the masses that he “met Canadian PM Justin Trudeau at the G7 Summit”.

The courtesy meeting comes amid strain over Canada's allegation that New Delhi's agents were involved in the murder of Nijjar, who had been declared a terrorist by India.

The Canadian allegations from last year were strongly rejected by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as “absurd and motivated”.

India has accused Canada of fostering anti-India elements.

On Saturday, Trudeau didn't reveal what transpired during his courtesy meeting with PM Modi.

"I'm not going to get 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 coming times, to deal with some very important issues," Trudeau told reporters, per PTI.

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 right now. You can appreciate that we won't be making any further statements at this time," spokesperson Ann-Clara Vaillancourt was quoted by the Canadian Press news agency as saying.

India, however, didn't release a separate statement over PM Modi's interaction with Trudeau.

New Delhi has maintained that the main issue between India and Canada is that the latter has been giving space to pro-Khalistan elements. New Delhi expects Ottawa to take strong action against those elements.

At the summit, PM Modi held bilateral meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He also met with US President Joe Biden.

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