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.

Canada has helped shape the international conversation on critical-mineral resilience. The next task is to demonstrate that it can build.

As Prime Minister Mark Carney has thawed Canada’s bilateral relationship with China within his wider policy of diplomatic and trade diversification in the face of an increasingly volatile United States, the question of Chinese electric vehicle investment in Canada has taken on new importance.