Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) China and (b) Canada on diplomatic relations between those countries.

The Foreign Secretary spoke to his counterpart Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland of Canada on 20 December and there have been regular contacts with Canada at official level since then. In a statement on 21 December, the Foreign Secretary expressed confidence that Canada was conducting a fair and transparent legal proceeding with respect to Ms Meng Wanzhou, the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei. He also expressed concern at suggestions of a political motivation for the detention of two Canadian citizens by the Chinese government, and called for them to be treated in a fair, unbiased and transparent manner. We have discussed the matter with Chinese officials in London and will continue to monitor the situation through our Embassy in Beijing and High Commission in Ottawa.