Canada in ‘strategic partnership’ with China, minister says

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she is seeking a balance between alleviating economic stress and pursuing Ottawa's security and human rights priorities.

Just three years after Canada called China a “disruptive global power,” Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada now views Beijing as a strategic partner in a dangerous world.

Anand told The Canadian Press on Monday that a strategic partnership with China means going beyond allowing individual irritants to strain the entire relationship and permitting Canada to advance its economic and security interests.

“It’s necessary for us to lay the foundation, if we are going to find areas where we can further co-operate,” she said.

“There are going to always be challenges in any relationship. The key is to be able to have the dialogue necessary to address the issues of Canadian concern.”

She spoke after visiting senior officials in China, India and Singapore — and just days before Prime Minister Mark Carney departs on his first visit to Asia since taking office, with stops in Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Her visit marks a shift away from the federal government’s 2022 Indo-Pacific strategy, which branded China as “an increasingly disruptive global power” that holds “interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.”

Anand said she is seeking a balance between alleviating economic stress and pursuing Ottawa’s security and human rights priorities.

“We must be nuanced in our diplomacy. We must stress our concerns relating to security and public safety on the one hand, and we must seek to build additional supply chains on the other. That is pragmatism,” she said.