Minister Joly Holds Second Meeting with Chinese counterpart in Recent Weeks
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly had a face-to-face meeting in Germany with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the second publicly disclosed interaction between the two within a little over a month.
The department’s account is scant on details, only saying that the two ministers discussed “Canada-China relations and issues critical to global security, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.”
Both ministers agreed that discussions on bilateral issues should continue “pragmatically and constructively, in a spirit of mutual respect, with regular communication between the two sides,” the GAC readout added.
In its Jan. 11 readout about the call, GAC said Ms. Joly had raised her government’s “concrete priorities for forward collaboration” with Beijing, which included fighting climate change and deepening economic and people-to-people ties.
Ms. Joly also reportedly told Mr. Yi that her government would pursue “pragmatic diplomacy” amid an “international security crisis,” with the readout referring to “the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and ongoing challenges and opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region.”
Silent Treatment
As of publication time, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and related entities have apparently not issued any news release or comments on the meeting with Ms. Joly. Meetings that Mr. Yi held in Munich with other counterparts, including those from the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, were publicized on various MFA accounts on the X social media platform.
“I think it’s worth it for me to go, to advance this collaboration on climate, on biodiversity, and perhaps also to start rebuilding a bridge with China at the diplomatic level,” he said. His visit to China was the first by a federal cabinet minister since 2018.
The Liberal government, which up to that time had sought close ties with Beijing, had to recalibrate its approach.
The Epoch Times asked GAC whether Ms. Joly raised that topic during her meeting but a response was not available by publication time.
Andrew Chen contributed to this report.