Meng Wanzhou

Jan. 16 (UPI) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday where they unveiled a “strategic partnership,” including a new trade deal, amid a thaw of an almost decade-long deep freeze in relations between the two countries.

Welcoming Carney at the Great Hall of the People, the first visit of a Canadian leader in eight years, Xi lauded the “turnaround,” noting that cooperation in recent months had already yielded “positive results” and that he was committed to further strengthening the relationship.

Carney said the relationship would deliver “stability, security and prosperity” for Chinese and Canadians alike, saying agriculture, energy and finance were the issues where efforts should be directed.

“That’s where we can make most immediate progress,” he said.

After their meeting, Carney emerged to announce a five-point partnership — the fruit of “recalibrating distant and uncertain ties” since he came into office in March — with a focus on boosting agri-food trade and clean energy and climate competitiveness, along with championing multilateralism and cultural exchange.

The trade deal will see China slash tariffs on Canadian canola seeds, peas and shellfish — worth as much as $3 billion in new orders — in exchange for Canada slashing its 100% tariff on 49,000 Chinese-made electric to just 6.1%, and Chinese investment in the development of clean power.

The deal unlocks an expected flow of Canadian investment in the other direction into aerospace, sectors, including services, aerospace and advanced manufacturing, as well as a potential increase in oil and gas exports to China.

Carney’s visit kicked off with a meeting Thursday with Premier Li Qiang with the Canadian delegation holding a series of ministerial-level meetings that yielded an MOU to hold more in-depth discussions oil and gas resource development, including LNG along with LPG, as well as cutting emissions.

“They are very clear, they would like more Canadian products,” said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson.

At a news conference with Li, Carney said the progress made in their new partnership would help position Canada and China up “for the new world order.”

He later clarified, saying what he meant was the decades-old multilateral, rules-based international order was no longer intact and was being superseded by a new one.

“The world is still determining what that order is going to be. The multilateral system that has been developing these has been eroded, to use a polite term, or undercut,” he explained.

Carney stressed Friday that differences between the two sides remained and that he had emphasized to Xi areas where Canada would never compromise, including human rights and issues such as election interference.

Ties have been stretched to the limit by a series of diplomatic and trade frictions dating back years but relations took a nose-dive in 2018 after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant, with China retaliating by detaining Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on espionage charges.

All three eventually made it home after a swap in 2021 but relations were tested again in 2023 after Ottawa accused Beijing of attempting to influence the result of Canadian federal elections in 2019 and 2021.

More recently, the Canadian government condemned China in March for executing four dual Chinese-Canadian citizens on drug-related charges.