Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hoped for a fresh cooperation with Ottawa as he met with his new Canadian counterpart, Mark Karney.
It comes after a bitter dispute over New Delhi’s alleged participation in the 2023 murder of a Canadian Sikh separatist.
Modi said, “I congratulate him for his great victory and I am confident that India and Canada will work together to progress in many fields.”
Carney, who took over in March, said that it was a “great honor” to invite Modi to the summit in Canadian Rockies as a guest of a group of seven major economies.
The Canadian leader said that he invited India, which is not a G7 member, due to its importance in global supply chains.
For a statement from Carney’s office, the two leaders “confirmed the importance of Canada-India relations, based on a commitment to mutual respect, rule of law and theory of sovereign and regional integrity.”
Spat to kill Hardip Singh Nijar
Canada is home to the largest Sikh population outside India, and this community said that the country should determine the situation of inviting it. On Tuesday, a few dozen Sikh protesters separated the Indian flag in the city of Calgary.
In 2023, a natural Canadian citizen and a lawyer for an independent Sikh state, Hardip Singh Nijar, called Khalistan, who was shot in a Sikh temple parking in British Columbia.
The then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of directly involved in the murder. Last year, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, linked them to murder and accused a comprehensive New Delhi attempt to target Indian dissidents in Canada. Four people have been accused of killing Nizar.
The Modi government has denied any participation in the murder and accused Canada of providing a safe shelter for Sikh isolations.
Edited by: John Silk
