Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly met with her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in New Delhi. During the meeting, Joly told her Chinese counterpart that Canada will never tolerate any form of foreign interference in its internal affairs and democracy, according to the statement.
During the meeting, Melanie Joly was "direct, firm and unequivocal." She told Qin Gang that Canada will never accept any breach by Chinese diplomats of the Vienna Convention on Canada's territory, according to the statement released by Melanie Joly on Twitter.
"Canada will never tolerate any form of foreign interference in our democracy and internal affairs by China," Melanie Joly said in the meeting, according to the statement.
"We will never accept any breach of our territorial integrity and sovereignty," Joly said. According to the statement, Melanie Joly said, "We will never accept any breach by Chinese diplomats of the Vienna Convention on Canada's soil."
During the meeting, Joly reiterated Canada's "firm" position on China as highlighted in the Indo-Pacific strategy. Both leaders agreed to keep lines of communication open.
In the statement, Joly noted that it was her first meeting with Qin Gang as he was recently appointed as China's Foreign Minister. Earlier in November, Melanie Joly had met China's former Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 summit in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Qin Gang has refuted allegations that Chinese embassies and consulates in Canada were trying to interfere in Canadian elections, CBC News reported. He has termed the allegations "completely false and nonsensical."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been facing pressure from his political opponents to launch an inquiry after media reports citing unnamed sources said the Chinese communist government has co-opted some Canadian politicians, CBC News reported.
A Commons committee on Thursday passed a motion in a bid to pressurise the government to take action, as per the news report. On March 3, Trudeau said his government has been seized with the issue of foreign interference for years and put in place a system to monitor meddling by China and other bad actors. He made the remarks at a childcare announcement in Winnipeg.
Trudeau further said senior officials working on the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol (CEIPP) have already reviewed the 2019 and 2021 campaigns. According to him, they have concluded that while there was some Chinese interference, however, those actions did not compromise the final outcomes.
( With inputs from ANI )
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