China, Canada vow stronger ties and support for multilateralism

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday vowed to deepen bilateral ties and uphold multilateralism.

Carney voiced Canada's willingness to work with China to maintain close high-level exchanges, deepen cooperation in fields such as energy, finance, agriculture and fisheries, and keep consolidating the foundation of bilateral relations.

Canada supports China in hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting, he said, adding that Ottawa is ready to work with Beijing to jointly champion and practice multilateralism, so as to make positive contributions to global economic development and world peace and stability.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said facts have proven that a better China-Canada relationship serves the interests of both countries, meets the expectations of all parties, and represents the right choice for Canada, emphasizing that there are no clashes of fundamental interests between the two nations and there is enormous room for cooperation.

Wang said that both sides should uphold multilateralism, the international rule of law, and strategic autonomy, while actively supporting free trade and an open world economy. 

During the talks with his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand, Wang said China and Canada relationship has set sail again.

Wang said under the strategic guidance of the leaders of both nations, exchanges and cooperation across various fields have fully resumed, with the main economic and trade concerns of both sides having been properly resolved.

He voiced hope of working with the Canadian side to explore the path for advancing the China-Canada new strategic partnership and make good preparations for Prime Minister Carney's upcoming trip to China to attend the APEC meeting, so as to ensure that bilateral relations move forward along a sound, stable and sustainable track.

Wang said that the ups and downs of China-Canada relations over the years have provided the most important revelation that the two sides should commit to mutual respect, seeking common ground while shelving differences, upholding strategic autonomy, and win-win cooperation.

Wang said that China is ready to work with Canada to deepen cooperation in fields such as energy, finance and law enforcement, and that Canada is welcome to participate in the China International Import Expo as the country of honor.

For her part, Anand said that Canada attaches great importance to its relations with China and that Canada firmly adheres to the one-China policy and has set a goal of increasing exports to China by 50 percent by 2030.

During their talks, the two sides agreed to establish a strategic dialogue mechanism between Chinese and Canadian foreign ministers and restart political and security consultations between the foreign ministries, as well as the high-level national security and rule of law dialogue.