BEIJING: China's top diplomat said during a trip to Ottawa that high-level political and security talks with Canada would resume, Beijing's foreign ministry said on Saturday (May 30), in a further sign of improving ties.
The relationship has warmed in recent months even as Ottawa's ties with traditional ally Washington have soured following Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in January.
Wang Yi's short visit to Canada, which began on Thursday, was the first by a Chinese foreign minister in a decade.
"Bilateral relations have set sail anew, exchanges and cooperation across all fields have been fully restored and the major economic and trade concerns of both sides have been properly addressed," Wang told his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
"The two sides agreed... to resume consultations on political and security issues at the foreign ministry level, as well as high-level dialogue on national security and the rule of law," the statement said.
Beijing lowered some duties on Canadian goods this year, while Ottawa agreed to import tens of thousands of Chinese electric vehicles under preferential tariffs.
Canada's arrest of a Chinese executive at Huawei in 2018 led China to retaliate, plunging relations into a deep freeze.
Ties were strained further over allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021, which Beijing denied.
Wang acknowledged that there had been "twists and turns" in the China-Canada relationship over the past several years.
According to China's foreign ministry, Anand told Wang that Canada was "looking forward to increasing exports to China by 50 per cent before 2030".
Bilateral trade between the countries reached nearly US$90 billion in 2025, up 4.9 per cent year-on-year, according to analysis by the University of Alberta, as Canadian exports to China surged by 13.8 per cent. - AFP
