Canada’s Carney hails ‘strategic partnership’ in talks with Xi

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney hails a “new strategic partnership” with Beijing as he holds talks with President Xi Jinping in the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in eight years.

The two countries had been locked in years of diplomatic spats after the retaliatory arrests of each other’s citizens and a series of tit-for-tat trade disputes.

But Carney has sought to turn the page on the testy relations, in a bid to reduce reliance on the United States, its key economic partner, as US President Donald Trump aggressively raises tariffs on Canadian products.

Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney says that “together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities.”

Welcoming Carney, Xi says China-Canada relations reached a turning point at their last meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in October, and hails “a new chapter in turning China–Canada relations toward improvement.”