Ottawa, Canada: The Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada, Melanie Joly, attends a meeting with her Chinese peer Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 (Group of Twenty) meeting in New Delhi. Joly stated that the Canadian Government would not tolerate foreign interference in internal or democratic affairs by China in any form.
According to the sources, during the meeting, Joly told the Chinese Minister Gang that Canada criticizes any breach by Chinese diplomats on the Vienna Convention on Canadian soil. Joly took to her Twitter account to issue her address, said reports.
She further stated that Canada is in no favour of tolerating and taking any foreign interference by the Chinese authorities in its internal and diplomatic matters. She further extended her remarks and said, “Any attack on our territorial sovereignty and integrity will not be taken lightly.”
As highlighted in the Indo-Pacific strategy, Joly emphasized the firm position that Canada holds on China. Following the meeting, both the Foreign Affairs Ministers agreed to maintain each other’s integrity by keeping communication channels open, noted reports.
In her statement, Melanie Joly pointed out that she met with the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs for the first time as Gang recently took over the position. In November, Joly had met with the former Foreign Affairs Minister of China, Wang Yi, during the G2O margins in Indonesia, said sources.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Minister also refused the accusations related to the interference issues raised by Canada regarding Chinese officials trying to interfere during the Canadian elections, Reported CBC News. Gang has denied the allegations and called them baseless and nonsensical.
Furthermore, Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, has been facing pressure from his political opponents to set up an enquiry committee after the media reports mentioning unnamed sources have confirmed that the Chinese communist Government has co-opted several politicians in Canada, noted CBC News.
As per the reports, on March 3rd, PM Trudeau pointed out that his Government has been seized with the foreign interference issue for years now and introduced a system to monitor meddling by China and other bad actors closely.
Trudeau further extended his remarks and stated that the election reports of the 2019 and 2021 campaigns had been reviewed by the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP). He cited that the final results of the elections were not affected by any such interference, if there was any.
