BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met on Friday for the second time in less than three months, in a bid to chart the course for bilateral ties that began to thaw last year, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.
The Xi-Carney meeting last October in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea, marked a turnaround of bilateral relationship, and placed it on a new trajectory of positive development.
The healthy and stable development of China-Canada relations is in the common interests of the two countries and also conducive to world peace, stability, development and prosperity, Xi told Carney, who is on an official visit to China from Wednesday through Saturday.
With a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, the two sides should advance the China-Canada new strategic partnership, steer their ties onto the track of sound, steady and sustainable development, and bring more benefits to both peoples, Xi said.
In his meeting with Carney, President Xi put forward four proposals regarding China-Canada relations, emphasizing that the two countries should be partners of mutual respect, common development, mutual trust and collaboration, according to Xinhua.
He said that despite different national conditions, both countries should respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, respect the political systems and development paths they have chosen respectively, and adhere to the correct way of getting along with each other.
Xi urged both sides to encourage exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, tourism, sports and sub-national areas, facilitate personnel exchanges and consolidate the popular will foundation. China is willing to enhance communication and coordination with Canada within the frameworks of the United Nations, the G20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation to jointly address global challenges, Xi said.
Following the meeting with Xi, Carney shared a photo in which he was shaking hands with the Chinese leader and smiling on an X post. The post reads: “A pleasure to meet with President Xi in Beijing. Canada and China are forging a new strategic partnership. We’re leveraging our strengths — focusing on trade, energy, agriculture, seafood, and other areas where we can make massive gains for both our peoples.”
According to Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, in the new strategic partnership stressed by two leaders, the word “new” emphasizes mutual benefit and mutual respect, rather than manufacturing geopolitical confrontation and conflict as some countries do.
The term “strategic” means that China-Canada relations will be oriented toward the long term, with both countries sharing the same strategic objectives in upholding economic globalization, overcoming protectionism, and opposing destructive actions that undermine the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other countries, Li added.
The Financial Times said Carney’s visit to Beijing is the first by a Canadian prime minister since Justin Trudeau in late 2017, at a time “when the US is disrupting global economic and political alliances.” –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
