Despite strained relations between India and Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the 51st G7 in Alberta, later this month. He extended the invitation to Modi during a phone call between the two leaders on Friday.
Due to the killing of a Canadian Sikh activist in Canada and other crime allegations, both Canada and India expelled their top diplomats last year.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada was angered by the invitation and wrote to Carney in May asking with him not to invite Modi. India and Canada are still at odds over claims that Indian government agents were complicit in the 2023 killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist movement activist in British Columbia.
Both the leaders looked forward to meeting at the G7 summit this month and decided to stay in close contact.
Carney said that Canada is serving as the G7 chair and that India ought to participate in some crucial talks. The summit will be organised in Kananaskis, Alberta from June 15 to 17.
“India is the fifth-largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains. I extended the invitation to Prime Minister Modi and, in that context, he has accepted,” Carney said. He was speaking to reporters that the two nations’ law enforcement conversation has made some headway.
When a reporter asked Carney if he believed Modi was involved in the death of the Canadian Sikh activist, he responded that a legal procedure was in progress and that he would not comment on the matter.
Following Canada’s notification to India that its highest diplomat in the nation is a person of interest in the 2023 assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and that police have found evidence of a growing campaign by the Indian government agents against Canadian people, the expulsions took place.
Meanwhile, congratulating Carney on his recent election victory, Modi said he was happy to hear from him. “As vibrant democracies bound by deep people-to-people ties, India and Canada will work together with renewed vigour, guided by mutual respect and shared interests. Look forward to our meeting at the summit,” the Indian prime minister wrote on social media.
After Nijjar, 45, left the Sikh temple he led in Surrey, British Columbia, he was fatally shot in his pickup vehicle. He was a Canadian citizen of Indian descent who ran a plumbing company and led the campaign to establish an independent Sikh country.
Four Indian citizens residing in Canada were charged with Nijjar’s killing.
The World Sikh Organization of Canada’s spokesperson and legal counsel, Balpreet Singh, described Carney’s invitation to Modi as a “betrayal of Canadian values.”
“The summit to which Mr. Modi is being invited falls on the anniversary of the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar two years ago. So for us, this is unacceptable, it’s shocking and it’s a complete reversal of the principled stand that Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau had taken,” he said.
Several nations have accused Indian officials of planning an assassination on foreign soil, including Canada.
An Indian government official allegedly directed a botched attempt to kill another Sikh separatist leader in New York, according to US prosecutors in 2023.