Backgrounder: Major Events In Sino-Canadian Relations

In May 2000, at the invitation of Speaker of the Canadian Senate Gildas Molgat, Li Ruihuan, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, visited Canada and met with the Canadian governor-general, prime minister, and the speakers of the Senate and the House of Commons. In February 2001, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien led "a Canadian national team" to visit China. President Jiang Zemin and Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Li Peng met with him respectively and Premier Zhu Rongji held talks with him. In October, Chretien arrived in Shanghai to attend the Informal APEC Leadership Meeting, during which he met again with President Jiang. At the end of March, Peter Milliken, speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, led a parliamentary delegation to visit China. In July, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, while attending the Foreign Ministers Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum held in Brunei, met with Canadian External Minister William Graham. In May 2003, President Hu Jintao, while attending celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, met with Chretien. In recent years, economic and trade relations between China and Canada have witnessed substantial development. They have developed from a single commodity trade into all-around cooperation in trade, economy and technology. From January to May 2003, the total volume of bilateral trade was 3.79 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 27.2 percent. At present,China is Canada's fourth largest trading partner, while Canada is China's 10th largest trade partner. The development of cooperation between the Chinese and Canadian governments started in 1982. In 1983, the two governments signed the General Agreement between China and Canada on Developing Cooperation. The cooperation between the two sides covered such areas as agriculture and forestry, energy, communication, education, environmental protection and human resources. The total number of cooperation projects reached 91, with the amount of money the Canadian side agreed to put into them nearing 410 million US dollars. Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/200509/08/print20050908_207337.html

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