On June 17, 2025, the Chinese Embassy in Canada held a symposium on China-Canada relations. Nearly 20 renowned experts, scholars, and representatives from 16 Canadian institutions — universities, think tanks, media outlets, and business associations — including the University of Alberta, the Canada China Business Council, the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, the CD Howe Institute, the Queen’s University, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Ottawa, attended the event.

H.E. Wang Di, Chinese Ambassador to Canada, highlighted that this year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries. The recent telephone conversation between the Premier and Prime Minister of the two countries has injected strong impetus into the bilateral relations. China is willing to work with Canada in a forward-looking spirit to strengthen practical cooperation in various fields, remove all kinds of disruptions, and promote continuous improvement of relations between the two countries, so as to bring more tangible benefits to the peoples of both countries, and provide more stability and certainty to the world. Mr. Philippe Rheault, Director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, the Canadian lead agency for the China-Canada Track II Dialogue, stressed that Canada-China relations are currently at an important inflection point. He expressed hope that both sides will strengthen communication and mutual visits to promote healthy and stable development of bilateral relations. Mr. Zou Xiaoli, Vice President of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese lead agency for the China-Canada Track II Dialogue, said in a video address that China is willing to work with Canada to make full use of the China-Canada Track II Dialogue platform to offer recommendations and advice on tapping the potential of practical cooperation between the two countries.

Canadian participants spoke highly of China’s high-quality development, highlighting that Canada-China relations have a solid historical basis and that the two countries are highly complementary economy-wise. China is one of the most important markets in the Asia-Pacific region, and there is enormous potential for cooperation between the two sides. Canada-China relations are currently facing an important window of opportunity, and Canada looks forward to working with China to jointly uphold free trade and multilateralism, enhance mutual trust, and deepen practical cooperation in areas such as economy, trade, agriculture, energy, people-to-people exchanges, and climate change, for the benefit of the people of both countries and to better respond to global challenges.