Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with Beijing as he held talks with President Xi Jinping on Friday, the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in eight years.
The two countries had been locked in years of diplomatic spats after the retaliatory arrests of each others’ citizens and a series of tit-for-tat trade disputes.
But Carney has sought to turn the page on the testy relations, in a bid to reduce reliance on the United States, its key economic partner, as President Donald Trump aggressively raised tariffs on Canadian products.
Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said that “together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities”.
Engagement and cooperation would be “the foundation of our new strategic partnership”, he said.
“Agriculture, energy, finance, that’s where we can make the most immediate progress.”
Welcoming Carney, Xi said China-Canada relations reached a turning point at their last meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in October.
“It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement,” Xi told the Canadian leader.
“The healthy and stable development of China–Canada relations serves the common interests of our two countries,” he said, adding he was “glad” to see discussions over the last few months to restore cooperation.
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