Prime Minister Marc Carney plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the pair attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit later this week in South Korea.
This meeting will come seven months after the confirmation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly
At the time, Joly said the Federal Government “strongly condemns” actions by China over what they called “drug-related crimes.”
Carney said he and Xi will discuss “broad issues, both in terms of commercial relations and the evolution of the global system.”
The planned meeting comes on the heels of Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Aland’s visit to Beijing, where she met her partner, Wang Yi.
“We are in the process of resetting the expectations of where relations are coming back,” said reporters at the United Nations Southeast Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The meeting will mark an important milestone in the relations and relations of the two countries that have officially met as Justin Trudeau met with the XI during an official visit to China in 2017.
In December 2018, Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the former chief financial officer of telecommunications giant Huawei, at the request of American authorities who wanted him to face the charges against him there.
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A few days later, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael headed to China and had what the Canadian government said was a countermeasure.
What followed were years of deteriorating relations between the two countries.
Trudeau and Xi spoke at the G20 summit in 2019 and again in 2022. At that meeting, Xi confronted Trudeau and accused him of inciting disrespect to the media.
In September 2021, Meng reached a plea deal with US prosecutors and returned to China in Vancouver. Kovrig and the pumpkin were freed and returned to Canada hours later.
The Canney administration has been working to rebuild relations with China since taking office. He met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the UN in September.
“Relationships open up over time when they’ve changed, when they’ve changed for the worse,” Carney said Monday. “So we have a lot of space to build on.”
Prime Ministers and business leaders in Canada have been urging Carney to meet with Xi in an effort to defuse the current trade dispute.
Last October, Canada followed the lead of the Biden Administration and imposed 100 tariffs on Chinese electronics and batteries, as well as tariffs on solar panels, precious minerals and other related goods.
China responded with damaging tariffs on Canadian canola, seafood and pork products.
Carney’s parliamentary secretary, Kodi Blois, traveled to China in early September with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. Moe returned from the trip optimistic that China was willing to move forward.
He and Premier Wab Kinew have both called for an end to Canadian tariffs on Chinese EVs to end the trade dispute.
Carney did not specifically say whether he would drop those charges Monday.
“I look forward to the discussions with President XI, and they are on a much broader level of issues than trade, and I will be in a better position to begin to answer such questions as the relationship evolves and deepens,” he said.
He added, “This is the difference between a relationship and a transaction. We start (a) relationship, build a relationship.”
Carney is in the middle of his official visit to Asia, where he is promoting Canada as a reliable trading partner in Southeast Asian countries as the United States raises global standards.
He is set to travel to Singapore on Tuesday before ending the tour at the APEC Forum in South Korea.
– With files from Ari Rabinovitch
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