China, Canada vow to deepen bilateral bond

China is willing to work with Canada, in the spirit of looking forward, to promote the steady and sound development of bilateral relations and strive for win-win cooperation, Premier Li Qiang said on Friday in a phone conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The call was the second interaction between them in less than a month, as Li sent a congratulatory message to Carney after the latter took office on May 13.

Canada was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and the bilateral relationship was at the forefront of China's ties with Western nations for a long time, Li said.

"However, in recent years, the relationship has suffered serious difficulties due to unnecessary disruptions," he said.

The development of China and Canada represents opportunities, rather than threats to each other, Li said, noting that there are no fundamental conflicts of interest between the two nations, only "a tradition of friendship and mutual benefits".

The premier expressed the hope that Ottawa would make joint efforts with Beijing, take an "objective and rational" view of China's development, and work together to achieve shared prosperity and success.

China is willing to work with Canada, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to seek and expand common ground while shelving and narrowing differences, strengthen exchanges and dialogue in various fields, and appropriately address each other's concerns, Li said.

He called on both governments to listen to their people, respond to their concerns, and do more to enhance bilateral friendly cooperation and increase mutual understanding and trust.

China is Canada's second-largest trading partner, source of imports and export market, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Li highlighted the two countries' enormous cooperation potential and strong economic complementarity, saying that both sides should deepen partnership in traditional areas, expand collaboration in emerging fields such as clean energy, climate change, and scientific and technological innovation, and strengthen people-to-people as well as economic and trade exchanges.

Noting that the current international situation is intertwined with turmoil, and unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, Li said that China is ready to work with Canada to jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, promote economic globalization and the multilateral trading system in the right direction, and inject more stability into world peace and development.

Carney said that Canada and China have a profound traditional friendship. While bilateral relations have experienced some setbacks in recent years, Canada is ready to restart its relationship with China, he said.

Canada looks forward to resuming high-level exchanges and dialogue mechanisms in areas such as diplomacy and economic and trade with China, and strengthening pragmatic cooperation in trade, agriculture, energy and environmental protection, he said.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 20th anniversary of their strategic partnership.

Lyu Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the phone call presented an excellent opportunity to enhance China-Canada relations.

"The two nations confront shared real-world challenges, including pressure and unilateral actions from a certain power. Nevertheless, they remain committed to upholding a multilateral trading system based on the principles of the World Trade Organization, with no fundamental trade conflicts between them," he said.

"As long as Canada can uphold its sovereignty, act independently and adhere to principles of objectivity and reason, there remains strong potential for further improvement in bilateral relations," he added.

zhaojia@chinadaily.com.cn