BEIJING, (Reuters): Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed on Thursday the speed of progress in ties with China, declaring that the stage was set for both nations to become strategic partners across many fields.
Carney’s optimistic remarks, in a meeting with China’s top legislator Zhao Leji in Beijing, followed months of intense re-engagement by both countries aimed at recalibrating ties that had soured under the previous prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
The four-day visit to China was the first by a Canadian prime minister since 2017, following up on Carney’s positive meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea in October. The two are set to meet again on Friday.
Carney said he was “heartened by the leadership of President Xi Jinping”, adding that warming ties had paved the way for strategic partnership in areas such as energy, people-to-people ties and security, according to a spokesperson for his office.
Re-engagement with China has also been fuelled by a push to diversify export markets after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada last year and suggested the longtime U.S. ally could become his country’s 51st state.
Earlier on Thursday, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, called Carney’s visit a “pivotal” event.
“This marks the Canadian prime minister’s first visit to China in eight years, representing a pivotal and landmark moment for our bilateral relations,” Wang told his counterpart Anita Anand, travelling in Carney’s delegation.
Anand praised the behind-the-scenes work in organising Carney’s approaching meetings with China’s leaders to ensure their success, the Canadian prime minister’s office said in a statement.
WARMING TIES
Periods of tension in the past decade have roiled ties, most recently after Trudeau’s government imposed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024, following similar U.S. curbs.
China retaliated last March with tariffs on more than $2.6 billion of Canadian farm and food products, such as canola oil and meal, leading to a slump of 10.4% in Chinese imports of Canadian goods in 2025, shown in customs data on Wednesday.
