Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Thursday that the government played no role in the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, last week, an event which has sparked outrage from China and shaken global markets.
“The appropriate authorities took the decisions in this case without any political involvement or interference… we were advised by them with a few days’ notice that this was in the works,” said Trudeau.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, did not know of the US extradition request during his meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20, which took place the same day of the arrest, sources told Reuters.
National security adviser John Bolton confirmed that the president was not informed of the decision, but that Bolton himself was aware in advance.
Markets fell on the news of the arrest, as initial optimism on the trade war truce reached between Washington and Beijing evaporates. European stocks were among the worst hit, the STOXX 600 losing 3.09%. The MSCI’s Asia-pacific indices excluding Japan were down around 2%.