On June 25, 2010, visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Noel Kinsella, speaker of the Canadian Senate, and Peter Milliken, speaker of the House of Commons, in Ottawa.
Over the past four decades, China-Canada relations have always moved forward despite changes in the international situation, and the two countries have conducted frequent contacts at high and other levels and achieved remarkable results in bilateral cooperation, Hu noted. Under the new situation, growing common interests have made relations between the two countries even more important, he said. China is ready to work with Canada to develop bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, strengthen exchanges, build up mutual trust and expand cooperation, take the opportunity of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and thus continuously advance the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Hu emphasized that inter-parliamentary exchanges are an integral part of China-Canada relations and of great significance for enhancing mutual understanding and public endorsement of bilateral relations. Over the years, said Hu, the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, has maintained a sound relationship of cooperation and friendly exchanges with both chambers of the Canadian parliament. Exchanges between the legislatures of the two countries have become increasingly vigorous with a mature mechanism and have seen many significant achievements. Such activities have played an important role in advancing bilateral relations, Hu added. The Chinese president expressed the hope that the two sides will continue to make good use of this important platform to further advance exchanges on legislation and supervision so as to promote the friendship between the two peoples and make positive contributions to the relationship between the two countries.
Kinsella and Milliken extended warm welcome to Hu who came to the Canadian Senate and House of Commons, saying that they were greatly honored to receive the Chinese President. They believed that Hu’s current visit will help boost the Canada-China strategic partnership. They congratulated China on its remarkable achievements and appreciated China's great efforts to eliminate poverty, increase employment and maintain economic growth. Emphasizing that there are no obstacles to further expanding bilateral ties, they expressed the hope to maintain this momentum in the growth of Canada-China relations by increasing trade and people-to-people exchanges, expanding practical cooperation on tourism and agriculture and exploring the ways to address such issues as food security. The two parliamentary leaders also stressed that the Canadian legislature strongly supports parliamentary diplomacy and is ready to step up exchanges with the NPC.
On the morning of the same day, President Hu met with the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Canada and representatives from overseas Chinese and Chinese students.
Wang Qishan, Ling Jihua, Wang Huning, Dai Bingguo and other officials attended the above activities.