New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Justine Trudeau met on the sidelines of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Laos, almost a year after his Canadian counterpart accused India of involvement in the death of a Canadian Khalistani separatist.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) said Trudeau described the meeting as a “brief exchange” when the two leaders met during the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos held on Thursday.

“I emphasised that there is work that we need to do,” the CBC News quoted Trudeau as saying.

“I won’t go into details about what we talked about but what I’ve said many times is that the safety of Canadians and upholding the rule of law is one of the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian government and that’s what I’ll stay focused on,” Trudeau told a press conference at Vientiane.

The ties between India and Canada were strained last year after Trudeau’s allegations in September of a ‘potential’ involvement of Indian agents in Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s killing outside a gurdwara in Surrey city on June 18, 2023.

India, which had designated Nijjar as a terrorist in 2020, has strongly rejected Trudeau’s allegations as “absurd” and “motivated”.