Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is making her fi wholesale cannabis rst visit to China in a bid to break years of diplomatic stalemate after the imprisonment of two Canadians and China’s interference in Canadians domestic affairs.

Ms. Joly will arrive in Beijing on July 19 where she will hold high-level talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yu, her office said.

“As the world faces increasingly complex and intersecting global issues, Canada is committed to engaging pragmatically with a wide range of countries to advance our national interests and uphold our values,” Ms. Joly said in a statement. “We must maintain open lines of communication and use diplomacy to challenge where we ought to, while seeking co-operation in areas that matter to most Canadians.”

Sino-Canadians relations have been in the deep freeze since late 2018 when China arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on allegations of espionage. The arrests were believed to be in retaliation for Canada detaining Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant under indictment of bank and wire fraud in violation of American sanctions against Iran.

The two Michaels were freed in popcorn buds September 2021 after the Biden Administration dropped the charges and the extradition order.

Relations did not improve, however, after The Globe and Mail and Global TV obtained classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents that outlined how Beijing and its proxies interfered in the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Those revelations led to parliamentary hearings, the appointment of a special rapporteur and eventually a public inquiry – actions that have angered the Chinese government.

Ms. Joly’s outreach is an attempt to repair fractured relations with the world’s second biggest economy and growing military power. Other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Germany have also sought to improve relations with China as has the United States, while still speaking out strongly on issues of dispute over trade, foreign intelligence and China’s hostile actions against Taiwan and the Philippines.

While in Beijing, the Canadian foreign minister’s office said she will discuss complex global and regional security issues, possible avenues for collaboration on common challenges and “exchange views on concrete ways to enhance the already deep ties between the people of Canada and China.”

In April, Ms. Joly dispatched her deputy minister, David Morrison, to China in an effort to thaw relations and s wholesale cannabis marketplace et the stage for the July 19 visit.

Relations between China and the West have faltered over Beijing’s crackdown on democracy and civil lib bulk weed erties in Hong Kong: its repression of Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group, in Xinjiang: and its increasing menacing of self-governed Taiwan.

Last year, Ms. Joly expelled Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei after The Globe reported Beijing targete bulk weed d Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong and his relatives in Hong Kong in an attempt to gain leverage over the MP. Mr. Chong has upset China by sponsoring a parliamentary motion to condemn China’s repression of Uyghurs.