Carney: Canada’s relationship with China at a ‘turning point’

CTV’s Judy Trinh reports from Gyeongju, South Korea, where Carney and Xi's meeting displayed a thawing of relations between the two countries after eight years.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada’s relationship with China is at a “turning point” following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The meeting was hosted by China and lasted just 39 minutes.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Speaking to reporters briefly after their meeting, Carney said his meeting with Xi was “long overdue.

“It’s been eight years since a Canadian prime minister has met with the president of China. We now have a turning point in the relationship. A turning point that creates opportunities for Canadian families, for Canadian businesses and Canadian workers, and also creates a path to address current issues.”

Carney said he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting and said that he had accepted President Xi’s invitation for a state visit. Officials said it would happen at a mutually convenient time.

According to a readout of the meeting from the Prime Minister’s Office, the two leaders directed their officials to move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants.

“They discussed solutions to respective sensitivities regarding issues including agriculture and agri-food products such as canola, as well as seafood and electric vehicles,” according to the readout.

The PMO also said the two leaders discussed a framework to “deepen cooperation across a range of areas from clean and conventional energy to agriculture, manufacture, climate change and international finance.”

During the bilateral meeting, the two leaders sat across from each other at long tables, flanked by their delegations. The tables were separated by pots of pink flowers, with the flags of both countries at the front of the room. The first few minutes of their interaction was captured by pool cameras.

President Xi spoke first. Speaking in Mandarin, Xi congratulated Carney on becoming prime minister of Canada and noted that this year “marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada.”

An English translation of Xi’s remarks shows that the president noted that “China-Canada relations have achieved a recovery and positive development momentum, which serves the common interests of our two countries.”

Looking across at Carney, Xi said, “The Canadian side has expressed its willingness to promote bilateral relations in a pragmatic and constructive manner.”

Portions of the prime minister’s public bilateral remarks mirrored that of Xi’s.

“Distance is not the way to solve problems. It’s not the way to serve our people with people centric growth as you have advocated. Pragmatic and constructive engagement is,” Carney said, looking directly at Xi.

Carney said the two nations would “establish a road to seize the many great opportunities between our countries and to also have a platform that’s needed for the dialogue to help build a more sustainable, inclusive international system.”

This is the second time that Carney has met Xi. The last time was in 2016, when China hosted the G20 Summit. At that time, Carney was governor of the Bank of England and chair of the Financial Stability Board.

In the prime minister’s public comments and readout, there were references to trade issues and irritants, but no reference to China’s record on human rights and foreign interference.

The relationship between Canada and China soured significantly in 2018 after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on behalf of the United States over bank fraud charges.

Days later, China separately detained Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor over allegations of espionage — accusations they denied. Both men were eventually released after spending more than 1,000 days in a Chinese prison, not long after Meng herself was released from house arrest.

Since becoming prime minister, Carney has signalled attempts to deepen the relationship with China in some sectors. Last month, he met Chinese Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-highest ranking official, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, while Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand met with officials in China earlier this month.

The last time there was official leader contact between Canada and China was in December 2017, when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau visited China. There have been other informal interactions since then, including during the G20 meeting in 2022, when President Xi cornered Trudeau in Bali, Indonesia, to scold him for leaking details of their discussion to media.

A readout published by China’s foreign affairs ministry said “President Xi underscored that China and Canada should develop an objective and rational perception of one another, view each other in the correct way, and advance the bilateral relations in light of the common and long-term interests of both countries.”

With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha and The Canadian Press