Serious” national security issues will be addressed with India, says Canada PM Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that he sees a new opportunity to engage with India on “some very serious” national security issues following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to office for a third consecutive term.

In an interview to CBC News on Monday, Trudeau said, “Now that he’s through his election, I think there is an opportunity for us to engage, including on some very serious issues around national security and keeping Canadians safe and the rule of law.”

Trudeau’s remarks coincided with the eve of the anniversary of the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar

Trudeau met with Prime Minister Modi in Italy during the G7 Summit, where India was invited as an Outreach country. PM Modi also tweeted a photograph of himself with the Canadian PM as they shook hands.

Following the meeting in Italy, Trudeau told the Canada-based Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) that there are some “important but sensitive” issues that the two countries need to work on together, without disclosing details of what the two leaders discussed.

In his Monday interview to CBC News, Trudeau said, “I think one of the really good things about summits is you get an opportunity to engage directly with a huge range of different leaders with whom there are various issues.”

“And certainly with India, there are massive people-to-people ties, there are really important economic ties, there’s alignment on a number of big issues that we need to work on as democracies, as a global community.”

Relations between India and Canada had soured after Trudeau spoke in the House of Commons about “credible allegations” of a potential link between Indian agents and the killing of the Khalistani terrorist Nijjar in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023.

India dismissed the accusations as “absurd” and “motivated.”

Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India’s National Investigation Agency in 2020, was shot and killed outside a Gurdwara in Surrey in June last year. Tuesday marks the first anniversary of Nijjar’s death.

The video of his killing, which reportedly surfaced in March this year, showed Nijjar being shot by armed men.