NORWAY — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked out of a joint press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Monday in Oslo without taking questions from reporters. The appearance was part of a two-day visit to Norway during a tour of northern Europe.

Modi wrote on X that he was addressing a "press meet" with Store but did not field any questions. He left the conference room after Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen called out a question.

"Prime Minister Modi, why don't you take some questions from the freest press in the world?" Svendsen asked. She followed him out of the room with a further question and received no response.

"We were, of course, expecting him not to answer questions, as that is what the PM does. However, it is our duty to try. I am a privileged journalist as I am reporting from one of the safest countries in the world. If I do not dare to ask questions, who will? I know the situation is alarming for my journalist colleagues in India," Svendsen told a news outlet following the encounter.

Store initially addressed questions from Norwegian media and did not address questions from Indian journalists before later speaking with them. At a separate news conference during the visit, Svendsen questioned Ministry of External Affairs Secretary (West) Sibi George about human rights in India and asked why Norway should trust India given rights violations. Svendsen said she had been subjected to trolling and alarming comments online after the two news conferences.

Modi has not held a single news conference in India during his 12-year term in office. On his trips abroad, he has only rarely fielded questions from reporters, including two in Washington, D.C., in 2023. He has been interviewed by media organisations viewed as close to the government, and his office has in some cases insisted that media organisations share questions in advance, and in a few instances insisted on only responding to questions in writing.

At a 2023 joint news conference in Washington with U.S. President Joe Biden, a journalist tried to ask Modi about the treatment of religious minorities and press freedom in India. "Democracy is in India's DNA," Modi said at that event, adding that India does not discriminate between people irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. The journalist subsequently faced online harassment and trolling from supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, some of whom targeted her religious faith and questioned her roots.