Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said on Wednesday that it is "wrong" and "completely unacceptable" to suggest the possible involvement of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in espionage activities in China.

Joly added in a press conference in Brussels that believing these allegations is tantamount to "falling into the Chinese narrative."

Joly arrived in the Belgian capital on Tuesday to participate in a conference of foreign ministers of NATO countries.

Kovrig had denied last week the allegations made by Spavor which were published by the widely circulated Canadian newspaper "The Globe and Mail" the previous week. According to these allegations, Spavor provided information about North Korea to Kovrig, who in turn passed it to foreign intelligence agencies without Spavor's knowledge, which led to their arrest by Chinese authorities.

"The government and I fully support Michael (Kovrig) and Michael (Spavor), and certainly what Michael Kovrig is saying now when he claims his innocence," Joly confirmed.

Joly also emphasized that there is no espionage activity within the Canadian Global Affairs Ministry, which includes the Foreign Ministry, through the Global Security Reports program, a program in which Kovrig worked.

"We are completely comfortable with the work of Global Affairs (Canada) around the world," Joly added.

China detained Kovrig and Spavor on December 10, 2018, nine days after Canadian authorities arrested the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant "Huawei," Meng Wanzhou, at the request of American authorities who accused the Chinese businesswoman of resorting to fraud to circumvent U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran.

China released Kovrig and Spavor in September 2021, simultaneously with the Canadian judiciary releasing Meng, who was under house arrest in a home she owns in Vancouver.

Kovrig is a former Canadian diplomat and at the time of his arrest was the senior advisor for Northeast Asia affairs at the International Crisis Group (ICG), where he had been working since February 2017 at its office located in Hong Kong.

As for Spavor, he is an advisor who in 2015 founded a non-governmental organization operating from Canada and China in the field of facilitating cultural, sports, tourism, and commercial exchanges with North Korea.