China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Canadian counterpart, Anita Anand, that the two countries should work to “eliminate interference” during a meeting on the sidelines of a security conference on Saturday.
Wang, who met a number of Western leaders at the Munich Security Conference, has been keen to present Beijing as a more stable partner compared with the increasingly unpredictable United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office last year, visited China in January as part of his efforts to broaden Canada’s export markets and reduce trade reliance on the US.
Under a preliminary trade deal announced during the visit, Beijing is expected to cut tariffs on Canadian canola imports and grant Canadians visa-free travel to China.
However, the United States—Canada’s traditional ally and largest trading partner—has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Canadian products if the deal proceeds, arguing it would allow China to “dump goods”.
Wang told Anand on Saturday that the two countries should jointly counter “interference”, without naming the US. “China is willing to work with Canada to eliminate interference and restart exchanges and cooperation in various fields,” he said, according to a readout from Beijing’s Foreign Ministry.
China has also overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was detained on drug charges in 2014, a Canadian official confirmed in February.
China–Canada relations had sharply deteriorated following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. Beijing responded by detaining two Canadians—Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig—on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.
On Saturday, Wang described Carney’s visit as “fruitful” and said the two countries should work to build a healthy and stable “new type of strategic partnership”.
