OTTAWA — A planned visit by China’s foreign minister to Canada this week — the first such visit in 10 years — offers a positive sign about the state of the Canada-China relationship, International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu said Tuesday.
Wang Yi arrives in Canada on Thursday for a three-day visit that will include meetings with both Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Prime Minister Mark Carney. The last time a Chinese foreign minister visited Canada was in 2016.
Wang and Anand are expected to discuss the recently updated Canada-China Strategic Partnership, trade, investment and global security, says a statement released by Anand’s office last week.
“It shows that our relationship is growing in the right direction,” Sidhu told The Canadian Press.
Carney, who travelled to Beijing in January, told reporters Wednesday he looks forward to the minister’s visit and will meet with him personally.
He said the visit will offer a “valuable exchange of views.”
Opposition MPs have called on the Liberal government in recent weeks to disclose the full text of a memorandum of understanding between the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security.
NDP public safety critic Jenny Kwan said in an open letter earlier this month that she wants to know if safeguards are in place to prevent Canadian information from being used against dissidents, human rights defenders, journalists or diaspora communities.
She said public statements indicate the memorandum concerns co-operation on transnational crime, cybercrime, narcotics and corruption, and the establishment of bilateral law enforcement working groups.
Carney said Wednesday the government doesn’t make a habit of releasing security agreements with other governments “for reasons of operational security.”
