Australia looks forward to constructive dialogue with China: PM Albanese

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he discussed trade, consular and human rights issues in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit on Tuesday, the first meeting between leaders of the two countries since 2016.

Mr Albanese said he raised the issue of Chinese tariffs and bans on Australian goods, first levelled in 2020, in response to Australia’s calls for an international inquiry into Covid-19‘s origins, but cautioned against expecting immediate changes.

“I put forward Australia’s position when it comes to the blockages in our trading relationship,” said Mr Albanese in a post-meeting press conference.

“It was a positive discussion, we put forward our position. It was not anticipated that a meeting such as that you get immediate declarations.”

The meeting takes place as both countries work to improve relations overshadowed by disputes over trade, Taiwan, human rights and the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Australia seeks a stable relationship with China. We have big differences to manage, but we’re always going to be better off when we have dialogue and are able to talk constructively and respective but also honestly,” said Mr Albanese.

Sitting down with Mr Xi for the first such high-level bilateral dialogue between Australian and Chinese leaders since 2016, Mr Albanese said at the start of the meeting that China and Australia needed to work towards a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.

“We have had our differences, and Australia won’t resolve from our interests or our values, but our bilateral relationship is an important one,” Mr Albanese said.

“Both sides have worked to stabilise the relationship based upon mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

Ties between Australia and China have deteriorated sharply in recent years, and Beijing in 2020 blocked a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral exports over Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In June, Beijing’s envoy called on Mr Albanese’s new Labor government - which came to power in a national election the previous month - to take action to reset ties.

Mr Albanese on Monday said there were no preconditions for the meeting with Mr Xi.

The meeting is significant for ending China’s long freeze on all high-level political dialogue, without Australia backtracking on any of its policies, said Mr Richard Maude, executive director of the Asia Society Australia. “In short, Australia has not bent to China’s will,” he said.

The meeting comes as China seeks to enter the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) free trade pact, which requires the approval of all 11 members, including Australia.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Tuesday that not all differences will be solved in one meeting, although Australia wants to see trade restrictions worth A$20 billion (S$18 billion) a year lifted.

“Part of stabilising this relationship would mean ideally the removal of those restrictions,” Mr Chalmers told ABC Radio.

The Liberal government of Mr Scott Morrison, the previous prime minister, had described the sanctions, mostly falling on commodity exports, as “economic coercion” by China.

In a speech on Sunday, Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong sought to differentiate Mr Albanese’s Labor government from its predecessor, which she said had tried to exploit differences with China for domestic political gain.

Australia under Labor would be “calm and consistent” on China, she said.

Professor James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said the meeting matters because Mr Xi is the only person with the authority in China to address Australia’s trade grievances.

“Xi might order the removal of sanctions, if not overnight, then gradually over time,” Prof Laurenceson said. The meeting also sends a “strong signal...to the Chinese bureaucracy that Australia is no longer to be shunned,” he said.

National Farmers Federation acting chief executive Warwick Ragg said: “Farmers welcome any moves to revive and improve access to Chinese markets and are hopeful this week’s meeting makes inroads towards that.”

Tuesday’s meeting was the first between Mr Xi and an Australian prime minister since 2016.

Australia’s relation with China began to sour in 2017 when it introduced laws to deal with what it said was Chinese interference in Australian politics.

Beijing was also angered by Canberra’s 2018 decision to ban Huawei from its 5G network on national security grounds, a decision followed by other Western nations.

Two Australian journalists, Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun, are also in jail in China awaiting sentences after closed-door national security trials. REUTERS