China and Canada should normalize bilateral relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Friday during a meeting with his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly.
China-Canada relations have been experiencing difficulties and upheavals in recent years, but this is not in China’s favor and requires serious overhaul by Canada, said Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Canada strategic partnership. On that occasion, the two sides should return to their original intentions, learn from the past and earnestly honour their commitment to establish diplomatic ties so as to inject new impetus into the normalization of bilateral relations.
Joly spoke of the long history of friendship between the Canadian and Chinese people. She said Canada is ready to improve and expand its relations with China in an active and results-oriented manner, and maintain contact and dialogue with China. Canada will continue to adhere to the one-China policy, the Canadian foreign minister said.
Wang Yi called on the Canadian side to take concrete measures to facilitate people-to-people contacts between the two countries, cultivate people-to-people exchanges, and thus be welcomed by the people. Issues related to Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are China’s internal affairs and brook no external interference.
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