(Beijing) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly on Saturday that their two countries are “not rivals”, criticizing “false information” about alleged Chinese interference.
Bilateral relations have been strained since the arrest in 2018 by Canadian authorities of a manager of the Chinese telecom group Huawei and the imprisonment in retaliation by China of two Canadian nationals.
Although all three have since been released, tensions have continued, with Beijing criticizing Ottawa in particular for its alignment with Washington’s Chinese policy and Canadian authorities regularly accusing China of interference.
“The current difficulties” in bilateral relations “are not what China wants to see,” Wang Yi told his Canadian counterpart, on the sidelines of the Security Conference organized in Munich.
“The two countries are not rivals and even less enemies. They should become cooperative partners,” argued Mr. Wang, according to a statement from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on Sunday.
Suspicions of foreign interference, particularly for the benefit of China, Russia and India, prompted the Canadian government to launch a national investigation last year to shed light on these supposed infiltrations.
These accusations of Chinese interference, relating to the last two federal elections in Canada in 2019 and 2021, have put Justin Trudeau’s government under pressure from opposition parties.
“We hope that Canada will stop hyping up the Chinese threat theory and stop spreading false information about China’s alleged interference in Canada’s internal affairs,” Wang Yi told Mélanie Joly.
The two diplomats also discussed “crucial issues for global security, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East,” according to a press release released by the Canadian government.
“The two ministers agreed that bilateral issues should continue to be discussed in a pragmatic and constructive manner, in a spirit of mutual respect and with regular communication between the two sides,” according to this report.
Wang Yi assured political and military leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that China was a “force of stability” for the world.