China, Canada eye new partnership

President Xi Jinping meets with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 河北新闻网集发Friday. FENG YONGBIN/CHINA DAILY

China and Canada look to a "new strategic partnership" amid growing geopolitical fragmentation, as President Xi Jinping met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Beijing on Friday.

During the meeting, Xi spoke positively about the turnaround of bilateral ties, and underlined the need for both countries to be partners who respect, trust and collaborate with each other for shared development.

Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a four-day official visit to China, the first trip to the country by a Canadian prime minister in eight years.

Xi said that the healthy and stable development of China-Canada relations serves the common interests of both countries and contributes to world peace, stability and prosperity.

Both sides should advance the building of a new strategic partnership with a sense of responsibility for history, for the people and for the world, and steer China-Canada relations onto a track of sound, steady and sustainable development, he added.

Xi pointed out that while China and Canada have different national circumstances, they should respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as choice of political system and development path, and adopt the right approach in their interactions.

Noting that economic and trade relations between the two countries are characterized by mutual benefit and win-win, and both sides stand to gain from cooperation, Xi said that China's high-quality development and high-standard opening-up will continually unlock new opportunities for China-Canada cooperation.

He underscored the need for both sides to lengthen the list of cooperation while shortening the list of irritants, and keep strengthening the bond of common interests with more deep-going and extensive cooperation.

Highlighting that a divided world cannot handle the common challenges facing humanity, Xi said the true solution lies in upholding and practicing true multilateralism and building a community with a shared future for humanity.

China is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with Canada under the frameworks of the United Nations, the G20 and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation to jointly tackle various global challenges, he said.

Carney noted that with a long history of friendly engagement and strong economic complementarity, Canada and China enjoy extensive common interests and opportunities.

Canada wishes to build a new strategic partnership with China that is strong and enduring so as to deliver greater benefits to the two peoples, Carney said, reaffirming his country's commitment to the one-China policy.

He said that Canada is committed to working with China in the spirit of mutual respect and partnership to expand and strengthen cooperation in the fields of the economy and trade, energy, agriculture, finance, education and climate change.

China has been long the second-largest trading partner of Canada, following the United States. Bilateral trade in goods exceeded C$117 billion ($84.2 billion) in 2024, underscoring the solid foundation and strong complementarity of economic ties between the two countries.

Since December 2017, China-Canada relations have suffered setbacks due to Ottawa's tough stance against China during the Justin Trudeau administration. Trade friction marked by Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and metals took place in 2024, and was followed by China's countermeasures.

Bilateral relations began to show positive momentum toward recovery and improvement after Xi and Carney, who assumed office as Canadian prime minister in March last year, met for the first time on the sidelines of the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in the Republic of Korea in October, when the two countries agreed to promote the resolution of specific economic and trade issues of mutual concern.

Carney's visit is considered by analysts as Ottawa's recalibration of its foreign policy toward China, driven by structural realities.

A joint statement of the China-Canada leaders' meeting was released on Friday, reaffirming the principles and policies guiding bilateral relations.

The leaders of both countries welcomed progress made in recent bilateral dialogues, and decided to reinvigorate the high-level China-Canada Economic and Financial Strategic Dialogue to discuss wide-ranging related issues to strengthen bilateral economic relations, the statement said.

While committed to expanding bilateral trade, strengthening two-way investment, and deepening cooperation in diverse sectors of mutual interest, the two sides reaffirmed the importance of a fair and open business environment for enterprises of both countries, the statement said.

Anthony Moretti, an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University in the US, said that Carney's visit comes at a pivotal time for Canada, which is grappling with significant pressures stemming from radical policy shifts emanating from Washington.

"The prime minister will need to both articulate and demonstrate through actions that his country has moved beyond black-and-white thinking and embraced the reality of a multipolar world free from cold-war mentalities," Moretti said in an article published by China Global Television Network.