Canadian foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the need to ensure respect for the rights of Meng Wanzhou in the proceedings.

The future of Huawei’s financial Director Meng Wanzhou should be decided within the framework of the laws of legal States such as Canada and the United States. On Friday, Canadian foreign Minister Christa Freeland told reporters in Washington after a meeting with the US Secretary of state Michael Pompeo and the defense Minister James Mattis.

“We all agree that the most important thing we can do is to ensure the rule of law,” she said. According to her, it is also important to ensure compliance with the rights of Meng Wanzhou during the proceedings for her extradition to the United States, while the “ongoing trial in Canada should remain apolitical.”

Freeland also stressed that the detention of Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver “was not a political decision of Canada, it was a consequence of the implementation of the law [on extradition between Canada and the United States].” She added that she explained this position of Ottawa to the Chinese Ambassador to Canada. In addition, the foreign Minister said that she was in touch with the US Secretary of state Michael Pompeo on this topic since the Chinese citizen was detained on Canadian territory.

On Wednesday, the US President Donald Trump said he could intervene in the case of the US Department of justice against Huawei’s CFO if it would serve the interests of the country’s national security or help to conclude a trade deal with China.

46-year-old Meng Wanzhou was detained on December 1 at the airport in Vancouver (British Columbia) by Canadian law enforcement agencies. This was done on a separate request for extradition from the Eastern district attorney’s office in New York in connection with the charge of violating US trade sanctions against Iran. The Supreme Court of the Canadian province of British Columbia on December 11 decided to release Huawei’s financial Director on bail before her extradition to the United States. Meng Wanzhou pleaded not guilty.

The detention of Canadian citizens in China

Freeland also added that the detention of Wanzhou and the detention of two Canadian citizens by the Chinese authorities are not connected with each other. “Chinese officials don’t see the connection between these two different cases,” she said. “From Canada’s perspective, there is not necessary to associate these two cases.” Freeland added that this week discussed many times the topic of detention of Canadian citizens with Chinese officials, including the Chinese Ambassador to Canada. She added that Ottawa took the case very seriously and intended to seek their release.

Freeland also said that on Friday, the Canadian Ambassador to China John McCallum met in Beijing with detained of Chinese authorities Canadian Michael Kovriga, and currently Ottawa is seeking consular access to the second detainee – Michael Spavor. The Minister added that diplomats are working to ” understand what specifically accused Canadian citizens.” According to her, she is also in touch with the families of these Canadians, but refused to disclose any details of their communication.

Previously, the government of China detained in Beijing, the former Canadian diplomat, employee of the NGO “international crisis group” Michael Kovriga, and later announced the arrest in Dandong (North-Eastern Liaoning province) a Canadian citizen Michael Spavor. The latter owns the international non-governmental organization Paektu Cultural Exchange, which arranges tourist trips to the DPRK and holds hockey matches in this country. Presumably, he helped organize meetings of the former American professional basketball player Dennis Rodman with North Korean leader Kim Jong-UN. Both Canadian citizens are accused of committing acts that pose a threat to China’s national security.