Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a meeting in South Korea last year. Carney’s trip to China next week will be the first visit by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Mark Carney will visit China next week, the first trip to the country by a Canadian prime minister in more than eight years as he seeks to rekindle relations with Xi Jinping.
Mr. Carney, looking for new export markets because of an increasingly protectionist United States under President Donald Trump, is trying to patch up ties with Beijing after a severe diplomatic rupture and years of Canada barring state-owned Chinese companies from investing or operating here.
The Prime Minister will leave for China Jan. 13, his office said Wednesday. He arrives on Jan. 14 and will spend a couple of days there before departing Jan. 17.
Mr. Carney will meet with the Chinese President during the trip, but the date of that meeting has not been announced.
The last visit a Canadian prime minister made to China was in 2017 when Justin Trudeau met with Mr. Xi but failed to agree on terms to start negotiations on a trade deal.
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It’s expected Mr. Carney would later head to the Qatari capital of Doha in the Persian Gulf region, where he is seeking to coax wealthy investors to deploy their capital in Canada. The Prime Minister’s Office, however, could not confirm this stop as of Wednesday morning.
Mr. Carney is also expected to make a stop at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, but the PMO was unable to confirm this as of Wednesday morning.
The Gulf, with its trillions of dollars in investment capital, is one of several priority regions for Canada, along with Europe and Asia, as it seeks to diversify trade away from the increasingly unreliable U.S. under Mr. Trump. That has made attracting foreign investment in energy, infrastructure, artificial intelligence and resources a high priority.
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Qatar’s fast-growing sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, has made recent deals in Canada. Last year, the QIA and Montreal-based wealth manager Fiera Capital Corp. launched a $200-million fund for investing in the Gulf state’s stock market. And QIA also bought a US$500-million stake in Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines, which has mining projects in Southern Africa, demonstrating an interest in critical minerals.
The Doha-based QIA, led by chief executive officer Mohammed Al-Sowaidi, is estimated to manage about US$550-billion and owns stakes in high-profile assets such as London’s Heathrow airport, auto manufacturer Volkswagen and a future Formula 1 car racing team led by Audi.