Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is conducting an official visit to China this week in a bid to reinforce bilateral ties.
Ottawa also seeks to discuss avenues of collaboration and to enhance “already deep ties between the people of Canada and China,” said the statement.
Beijing and Ottawa both say Ms. Joly was invited to China by Wang Yi, China’s director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs and minister of foreign affairs.
“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,” Ms. Joly said in a statement regarding the trip.
The minister said the visit is in line with objectives of her government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, released in 2022.
“We must maintain open lines of communication and use diplomacy to challenge where we ought to, while seeking cooperation in areas that matter most to Canadians,” said Ms. Joly.
The official visit comes amid heightened concerns about foreign interference in Canada, with the Chinese regime being identified as the main culprit.
The views of various Canadian security bodies on the matter have been publicized in recent months through the Foreign Interference Commission, with intelligence and assessments on broad trends and specific events coming to light.
Ms. Joly’s visit will be the first time a cabinet minister has travelled to China since Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault visited in August 2023.
Relations between Ottawa and Beijing soured at the end of 2018 after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wangzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant, with Beijing arbitrarily detaining Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in apparent retaliation.
Mr. Guilbeault was attending the annual meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a Chinese regime-led body, on which he serves as an executive by virtue of role as environment minister.
The Canadian government has long said it considers climate change a key area to cooperate with China.