The leaders of China and Canada held their first formal talks since 2017 on Friday, with both sides agreeing to revive exchanges and cooperation in an effort to repair strained ties.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping met Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, telling him that relations showed a “trend of recovery and positive development” following their nations’ mutual efforts.
“[China] is willing to work with Canada to take this meeting as an opportunity to bring China-Canada relations back onto the right track,” Xi said, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
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The Chinese leader added that China and Canada should view each other “correctly” and expand cooperation in areas ranging from trade and economy to energy while deepening people-to-people exchanges. The Xinhua report said the two leaders agreed to push to resolve economic issues.
Carney said the new Canadian government highly valued its ties with Beijing, looked forward to restarting bilateral cooperation and sought to “make up for lost time”, a reference to heightened tensions between the two countries in recent years, according to Xinhua.
An official Canadian statement said the two leaders agreed that the talks – which Canadian media said lasted 39 minutes – marked a “turning point in the bilateral relationship”, and they committed to renewing ties in a pragmatic way.
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“Both leaders directed their officials to move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants,” the statement from Ottawa said, adding that Carney had accepted Xi’s invitation to visit China at a mutually convenient time.
The meeting came on the back of years of fraught ties between China and Canada, partly stemming from the 2018 tit-for-tat arrests of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver at the request of the US, and two Canadians living in China accused of espionage.