Australia won't respond to Beijing's four 'demands', says PM Albanese
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CANBERRA • Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out complying with a list of demands from the Chinese government to improve relations between the two countries.
Speaking at a news conference in Canberra yesterday, Mr Albanese said Australia "doesn't respond to demands", when asked about a statement by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who has listed four "actions" by which Australia could improve its ties with Beijing.
Among those were the need for Australia to view China as a "partner rather than a rival", seeking common ground "while reserving differences" and not "being controlled by any third party".
Mr Wang made his statement after he met Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong last Friday, the first such meeting between the two countries' senior diplomats since 2019.
Yesterday, Mr Albanese said Australia would "respond to our own national interest".
"We will cooperate with China where we can. I want to build good relations with all countries. But we will stand up for Australia's interests when we must," he said.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin declined to comment directly when asked about Mr Albanese's comments, but said an improvement in ties would benefit both sides. "We hope that Australia can take the opportunity to reshape its perception and form a correct perception of China, work with China in the same direction, and accumulate positive energy and reduce negative dimensions in the relationship so as to improve it," he said in Beijing.
Australia has been trying to repair damaged diplomatic relations with its largest trading partner since Mr Albanese's Labor Party won a national election in May.
But both sides still largely blame the other for the original fallout, with Mr Wang Yi saying the "root cause of the difficulties" was the previous government under then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
After Mr Morrison's government called for an international investigation into the source of Covid-19 in April 2020, Beijing imposed trade sanctions on a large number of Australian exports, including wine, barley and coal.
Mr Albanese said any further warming in relations will require the trade sanctions on Australian exports to be lifted.
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