“The whole world is facing the triple crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. These crises know no geopolitical boundaries and require urgent international cooperation,” a spokesman for Mr. Guilbeault wrote in a statement to The Canadian Press.

The minister has been invited in recent weeks to attend the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, his cabinet said, reflecting the role of Canada’s and Mr Guilbeault’s “recognized leader” on the international stage.

He also pointed out that the minister and his Chinese counterpart, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu, strengthened their ties when they jointly organized the UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) held in Montreal last December .

Relations between Canada and China have been particularly strained since the Meng-Wanzhou affair. China had held two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, for two years in what appeared to be retaliation for the Vancouver arrest of tech giant Huawei’s chief financial officer.

Passing through Prince Edward Island, Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre did not respond directly to a question about Mr Guilbeault’s trip, but rather attacked the appalling way the Trudeau government is protecting Canadian democracy from China.

“Beijing intervened in two elections to help Justin Trudeau,” he said. And we don’t have a public inquiry, we don’t have a register of foreign influence. It has done literally nothing to protect Chinese Canadian citizens who are being threatened by police stations here in Canada. »

Guilbeault’s visit to China is part of the Trudeau government’s Indo-Pacific strategy presented last fall, the office of Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said.

This strategy states that there is a “necessity” to work with China because of its size and influence to “try to find solutions at the international level to certain existential challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss”.

“Our approach to China is based on a realistic and sober assessment of contemporary China,” the document said.

With information from Émilie Bergeron