Canada continues to have “deep ties” with China despite lingering diplomatic tensions with Beijing, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday.

“Certainly these are very difficult times in Canada’s relationship with China,” Freeland told the Senate foreign affairs committee. “And we are very clear about that. But we’re also clear that it is a relationship which is longstanding and will endure what it needs to endure.”

Relations between Canada and China became strained after authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei, at Vancouver’s airport in December following an extradition request from the United States. American officials want her extradited to face allegations of fraud and skirting U.S. sanctions on Iran. Canada has said it will allow the U.S. extradition case against Wanzhou to proceed.

Chinese authorities have since detained two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Spavor and businessman Michael Kovrig – on allegations of espionage. A third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, who had been sentenced to 15-years for drug smuggling, is now on death row.

Spavor and Koverig’s detentions, Freeland told the committee on Tuesday, were raised last week during a NATO meeting in Washington. The matter has also been discussed at the G7 meeting of foreign affairs ministers. The fact that the matter was discussed at those meetings, she stressed, “is no small thing.”

“Canada has been very clear when it comes to being truly a rule of law country, being a country that honours international treaty agreements and that is why we have honoured our extradition treaty with the United States,” Canada’s foreign affairs minister told senators when asked about Canada’s current relationship with China.

“We also have been very clear and very strong in standing up for our arbitrarily detained Canadians and we have, I think more effectively than some would have expected, managed to rally an international coalition of countries to publicly speak out in support of the detained Canadians.”

Despite the tensions, Freeland said China’s position on the world stage, as the world’s second largest economy, is a “reality” one cannot ignore. “It is important for us to bear in mind the role that China plays in the world economy and global trader,” she said.

“That is a part of the shape of the 21st Century and that reality, by the way, is reflected in the trade talks going on today between the U.S and China,” she later stressed.

Canada, Freeland explained, continues to have a multi-faceted partnership with the Asian superpower – a connection that should not be dismissed.

“Speaking for Canada, we have a deep and longstanding relationship with China, a relationship on many different levels. It is a relationship that includes our ties between universities, people to people ties, it includes economic ties and a trade relationship,” she said.

Asked about Canada’s reliance on a more “rules-based” trade and diplomatic environment, Freeland said she feels it is in the best interest of all countries to engage in rules-based discussions. “But we need to make those arguments,” she said in French.

Canada and China also remain embroiled in a trade dispute over canola exports after Chinese officials pulled the canola export licenses from two Canadian grain companies in March, alleging pest issues. Chinese importers have also stopped purchasing canola seed. Canadian authorities have vehemently refuted those claims, insisting they are not science-based.

Freeland did not explicitly mention the canola dispute in her committee remarks on Tuesday, although the matter was flagged to her by the committee’s chair, Raynell Andreychuk, who called it a “crisis.”

“I want you to consider the balances of national policy and international policy,” the Saskatchewan senator said. “International isn’t just what China does and how we respond. It’s how Canadians are affected in their day to day lives.”

The foreign affairs minster’s office told iPolitics the canola trade issue was raised two weeks ago during Freeland’s meeting wth U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.