Mélanie Joly's surprise visit to China is first by Canadian foreign minister in 7 years
Joly set to hold talks with her Chinese counterpart on Friday
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is making a surprise visit to China in an effort to thaw relations between the two countries — the first face-to-face talks in Beijing involving a Canadian foreign minister in nearly seven years.
Joly is in Beijing at the invitation of Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign ministry said. Wang is China's foreign minister and a director of the all-powerful Communist Party of China's Central Committee.
A senior Canadian government official with direct knowledge of the visit told CBC News the meeting between the two foreign ministers on Friday is a "big step in the right direction" and "an important one" aimed at repairing the deteriorating ties between the two countries.
Those ties have soured in recent years after China's detention of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — detentions Canada maintains were arbitrary — and recent reports of Chinese political interference in this country's politics.
The source told CBC News the visit has been discussed for a while but came together "over the course of a couple of weeks" and was finalized without the help of international partners.
In a statement, Joly's office says the ministers will "discuss possible avenues for collaboration on common challenges" and will also "exchange views on concrete ways to enhance the already deep ties between the people of Canada and China."
"As the world faces increasingly complex and intersecting global issues, Canada is committed to engaging pragmatically with a wide range of countries to advance our national interests and uphold our values," Joly said in a statement provided by her office.
"As described in Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy, we must maintain open lines of communication and use diplomacy to challenge where we ought to, while seeking co-operation in areas that matter most to Canadians.
"I look forward to a productive meeting."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told journalists in his regular briefing Thursday that Joly and Wang "will have in-depth communication on China-Canada relations and issues of common concern to promote the improvement and development of bilateral relations."
The senior Canadian government source said the trip is also being seen as a way to open the door to other ministerial visits in the future. The source said the two countries have the potential to work together on a number of issues, such as climate change and the environment.
The source said a "big question mark" lingers over the prospect of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visiting the country soon, the source said.
"At the core, [Joly] will defend Canada's national interests, while keeping ... the door open for further collaboration on common interests," the source said, adding Joly should be expected "to continue her diplomacy, to set the tone for the relationship through dialogue."
Troubled relations
This is Joly's first trip to this country since her appointment as foreign minister in October 2021. Joly last met her Chinese counterpart in February, on the sidelines of a global security conference in Munich.
Canada's relationship with China entered a deep freeze following Beijing's detention of Kovrig and Spavor in December 2018. Their arrests were widely seen as retaliation for the Vancouver arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of the U.S. to face fraud charges related to American sanctions against Iran.
Although all three were released in 2021, tensions continue and Canada's spy agency has said it believes the Chinese government interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.
More recently, Canada said it is considering a plan for potential tariffs to protect Canada's electric vehicle supply chain from what the Trudeau government calls unfair Chinese competition.
Despite that, when Joly and Wang met in February in Germany, the two foreign ministers signaled the thaw in diplomatic ties meant a path forward for negotiations on the most sensitive issues dividing the two countries.
"It is in the fundamental interests of both countries to promote the stabilization of China-Canada relations from further deterioration and achieve the improvement and development of bilateral relations," a readout — or summary — of the meeting released by China's foreign ministry said at the time.
"The economies of China and Canada are highly complementary and there is no conflict of fundamental interests between the two sides. The two sides are not rivals, let alone enemies, and should be partners of cooperation."
The last Canadian foreign affairs minister to visit China was Chrystia Freeland in 2017. Prime Minister Trudeau visited the country in December of that year, when Canada and China appeared poised to announce the formal start of negotiations toward a free trade agreement.
All hopes of that were dashed when the "two Michaels" were detained 12 months later, and bilateral relations between the two countries hit what Beijing described as "rock bottom" and a "freezing point" compared to any time since diplomatic ties were first established in 1970.
Friday's high-level visit by Joly comes just weeks after China's new top envoy began his post in Ottawa. The new Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di — who officially began on June 26 — said at the time of his appointment that "China attaches importance to its relations with Canada."
The ambassador is quoted as saying that China "stands ready to work with Canada to promote healthy and stable development of the bilateral relations on the basis of mutual respect, seeking common ground while putting aside differences and win-win co-operation," in a statement released by the embassy.