The Vietnamese president’s visit comes as Ottawa and Hanoi are both searching—from very different geopolitical positions—for greater resilience, diversified partnerships, and room to manoeuvre in a more contested world.
Diversification cannot simply mean shifting from overdependence on the U.S. to deeper concentration in Europe.
Even modest Canadian engagement with China may be judged less on its merits than on how it is interpreted in the U.S. within a framework designed to ‘wind down adversarial outside influence.’
If Canada wants to remain a G7 economy, it must approach economic relations with China through the lens of strategic caution, not short-term commercial convenience.
