Prime Minister Mark Carney will sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping at next week Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he intends to press Ottawa concerns over foreign interference. Carney confirmed the meeting at a Montreal news conference, saying the two leaders will discuss many things, and the encounter will be one of the most watched meetings of the summit.
Why it matters
The meeting comes with a heavy agenda. Carney faces allegations of espionage and reports of Chinese police stations operating in Canada, and he has said he will raise the interference issue directly with Xi. The relationship with Beijing has been strained for years, and the APEC meeting will show whether the two sides can talk about their differences at all.
Parliament will be watching what Carney brings home. The prime minister has just returned from a European summit in Dublin, where he pushed Canada deeper alliance with Europe, and he is now turning to Asia with the same message: Canada is diversifying its partnerships. China is the largest and most difficult piece of that puzzle, and a confrontation in public would test the strategy.
What happens next
The trade backdrop is also in play. Canada and India are near the final text of a trade pact, with the sixth round of talks coming up, and Carney is building a network of partnerships that reduces reliance on the United States. Trade talks with Washington collapsed in August, leading to 50 percent American tariffs on about 20 billion dollars of Canadian goods.
For now, the meeting is set and the agenda is public. What it produces will depend on whether Xi engages on interference or deflects it, and Parliament will want a full account when Carney returns. Either way, the encounter will shape the next stage of Canada diversification plan.
The APEC summit is the hardest part of the diversification tour, because it involves confrontation rather than agreement. Carney has just returned from a European summit in Dublin, where he pushed Canada deeper alliance with Europe, and he is now turning to Asia with the same message. The Xi meeting will test whether Canada can push back on Beijing while deepening ties with Europe at the same time.
