{"id":1050183,"date":"2026-09-08T04:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T04:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050183\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T04:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T04:24:16","slug":"canada-holds-first-defence-co-ordination-talks-with-china-in-more-than-eight-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050183\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada holds first defence co-ordination talks with China in more than eight years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada has restarted military talks with China<\/a> after a break of more than eight years that began with Beijing\u2019s jailing of two Canadians in late 2018.<\/p>\n

The two countries held a \u201cdefence coordination dialogue\u201d on Sept. 4, according to a statement issued the day after the meeting by China\u2019s Ministry of National Defense. <\/p>\n

Beijing was the only side to publicly announce this new milestone in thawing relations between Canada and China under Prime Minister Mark Carney. Mr. Carney\u2019s government, which has faced blowback from U.S. President Donald Trump over its new \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with China, issued no statement to mark the event.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from The Globe and Mail, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence confirmed Monday that the meeting took place in Ottawa last week. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of ongoing working-level dialogue, Canadian and Chinese defence officials met on September 4, in support of ongoing military-to-military communications at the functional level,\u201d said department spokesperson Nick Drescher Brown in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis meeting is consistent with Canada\u2019s broader defence engagement with partners across the Indo-Pacific region and is anchored in our commitment to protecting the safety of Canadians and the strategic interests of Canada. As a matter of longstanding practice, the Government of Canada does not publicize working-level meetings by officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Between 2013 and 2018, Canada conducted four \u201cdefence coordination dialogues\u201d with China, with the last one in April, 2018. <\/p>\n

A Canadian official said on background that fewer than 10 staff members from the Canadian Armed Forces<\/a>, the Department of National Defence and the department of Global Affairs attended last week\u2019s meeting with Chinese counterparts. The military ranks in attendance ranged between major general and the rank of colonel in the army and air force, which corresponds to captain in the navy, the same official said. The Globe is not naming the official because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. <\/p>\n

In a statement posted on China\u2019s Ministry of Defense website, Beijing said the Canadian and Chinese sides \u201chad a candid and in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of mutual interest, expressed willingness to strengthen practical exchanges and cooperation between the two militaries, and enhanced mutual understanding and trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vina Nadjibulla, co-founder and chief executive officer of the Centre for Strategic Statecraft, a foreign policy think tank, said the federal government owes Canadians a clear explanation as to why it is reopening this defence<\/a> communication channel, noting that China has grown increasingly assertive in Asia since 2018. <\/p>\n

In recent years, China\u2019s armed forces have become far more assertive in contested zones throughout the Indo-Pacific, engaging in close encounters with foreign planes, sending maritime law enforcement ships to confront Philippine resupply craft in the South China Sea, and increasing pressure on Taiwan through frequent military manoeuvres close to the self-governing island. In earlier times, Beijing leaned heavily on negotiation and financial influence to press its sovereignty claims, but today it frequently underpins these with deployments of naval vessels, combat aircraft and civilian-crewed flotillas.<\/p>\n

Inside Taiwan\u2019s budding civil defence movement, where ordinary citizens are preparing for disaster<\/a><\/p>\n

The Canadian official, speaking of the Sept. 4 meeting with China, played down the event, calling it a routine dialogue to exchange views on regional and global security matters, and to communicate respective priorities and concerns.<\/p>\n

The official did not disclose the content of discussions, but China has vociferously complained about Canada sending warships through the Taiwan Strait separating the People\u2019s Republic of China from the island Beijing considers a breakaway province. Canadian warships often traverse the Taiwan Strait with the United States and other Western countries, effectively challenging Beijing\u2019s claims to what the West regards as an international waterway. The U.S. calls its transits \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d operations.<\/p>\n

In late 2023, then-Canadian defence minister Bill Blair accused Beijing of unprofessional and unsafe conduct after a Chinese warplane fired flares in front of a Canadian helicopter flying over international waters in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

Ms. Nadjibulla said Canadians should hear about rekindled defence ties from Ottawa rather than having to rely on Beijing\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot has changed since Canada last conducted such dialogue with China in 2018,\u201d she said. China\u2019s increasingly aggressive conduct in the South China Sea and around Taiwan \u201cremains a serious concern for Canada and its Indo-Pacific and European partners,\u201d Ms. Nadjibulla noted.<\/p>\n

Ottawa must explain if this channel is for risk management and crisis communication or whether it\u2019s an expansion of the new strategic partnership Mr. Carney struck with China in January, she said.<\/p>\n

Opinion: How many more times will Beijing fool Canada\u2019s politicians?<\/a><\/p>\n

In his statement, Mr. Drescher Brown said: \u201cAs the Prime Minister has consistently said, Canada\u2019s renewed engagement with China will be guided by a series of guardrails. Under this framework, there are specific areas in which we will seek deeper cooperation with China and areas where we will not, which includes on defence.\u201d <\/p>\n

Diplomatic relations between Canada and China plunged into a deep freeze in late 2018 after Beijing jailed two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, after Ottawa arrested a Chinese tech executive on an extradition request from the United States. One cabinet minister at the time called China\u2019s conduct \u201chostage diplomacy.\u201d Seeking new markets for Canadian goods after U.S. President Donald Trump began imposing protectionist tariffs on Canada in 2025, Mr. Carney in early 2026 sought to rekindle ties with China.<\/p>\n

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a member of the advisory board of the China Strategic Risks Institute, a think tank, said she\u2019s concerned about any deepening defence co-operation with China, a country she noted Mr. Carney in 2025 described as the top geopolitical threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does this lead to? What are the guardrails? What subjects such as the Arctic are off limits?\u201d she said. \u201cThe Chinese have very long-term plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired general Wayne Eyre, formerly the chief of the defence staff, said the dialogue appears to be focused on communication, not co-operation, adding it\u2019s important to sustain lines of communication with other countries, including rivals.<\/p>\n

Opinion: I\u2019ve spent 50 years navigating Canada-China relations. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout history, maintaining communication with an adversary has been useful to deepen understanding and avoid unintended escalation,\u201d he said. \u201cHistorical examples abound: Cold War hotline, Pakistan-India hotline, and US-Russia hotline during the Syrian conflict.\u201d Mr. Eyre said even during his time in Korea \u201cwe had a line to the North Koreans.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said Canada should have a standing communication channel with China. \u201cMeetings like this are normally conducted at the working level and with China they are infrequent and highly scripted. What is needed is a dedicated higher-level direct channel of communication to rapidly deal with unintended incidents to avoid escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A senior U.S. military official also met with a Chinese counterpart in Victoria last week.<\/p>\n

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, met with General Yang Zhibin, commander of the People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s Eastern Theater Command, during the 28th Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense Conference that took place Aug. 31 to Sept. 2. <\/p>\n

During the conference, General Jennie Carignan, chief of defence staff for Canada, told The Globe<\/a>: \u201cThere is a clear demand from the government to recalibrate and realign our relationship with China.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada has restarted military talks with China after a break of more than eight years that began with…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1050184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[2148,2138,671,104,2132,692,2147,2131,2143,2144,2140,2133,2130,79,407,746,2142,2137,2159,2134,2135,454,2139,1165,728,2149,108,2154,2155,50,2157,2152,2156,2150,2153,2136,85,2146,80,2145,2151,1458,158,1164,2141,1154,107,2158],"class_list":["post-1050183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}