Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has met China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil.
Anthony Albanese is declaring a major trade win with China despite simmering tensions highlighted by a warning from Xi Jinping.
The Prime Minister met with the Chinese President on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil on Monday (local time).
Speaking to media after the bilateral talks, Mr Albanese declared Canberra and Beijing had “restored trade between our two countries.”
“Impediments have been removed across a range of industries; wine, timber, coal, barley, seafood and as a result of that, some $20bn of trade has been resumed,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government has ‘restored trade’ with China. Picture: Supplied/handout/Prime Minister’s Office
“I’m confident that the agreement, which will see the lobster trade resumed in time for the Lunar New Year in 2025, will be delivered.
“I’ve said number of times that we will co-operate with China where we can.
“We’ll disagree where we must, but we’ll engage in our national interest, and we’ve managed to improve relations without compromising any of Australia’s national interests.”
But while Mr Albanese was keen to spruik trade stabilisation with Australia’s biggest trading partner, Mr Xi struck a far more cautious tone.
In joint remarks ahead of the talks, Mr Xi said there had been “some progress in China-Australia relations” over the past decade, but also “some twists and turns.”
“Now, our relations have realised a turnaround and continues to grow, bringing tangible benefits to our two peoples,” he said.
“So, this is the result of our collective hard work in the same direction, and should be maintained with great care.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping says Australia-China relations have taken ‘twists and turns’ over the past decade. (Photo by Pablo PORCIUNCULA / AFP)
Back in Australia, opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham weighed in, saying Australia should “absolutely aspire” to keeping the region “as economically open as possible”.
But the Coalition frontbencher urged the Albanese government focus on currying favour with Donald Trump amid concerns around the US president-elect’s floated tariff plan.
“Now from an Australian perspective, as well as preserving our regional openness, the other thing the Albanese government should be doing is responding to those Trump policies by seeking to ensure Australia is mounting the strongest possible case about trade surplus … (as well as getting) exemptions from the proposed Trump administration on trade tariffs.”
In his comments after his meeting with Mr Xi, Mr Albanese said he did not discuss the incoming US president with the Chinese leader, but that Australia’s alliance with the US did come up.
“Our alliance is with the United States and that is the only context in which (the US) was raised,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to talk about the progress in “stabilising relations” between Australia and China.
The Albanese government has sought to strike a balance between pushing for trade normalisation with Beijing while making multilateral efforts to contain China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia has also committed record amounts of cash to defence in a bid to rapidly expand its striking capabilities.
The Defence Department said on Tuesday Australia, the UK and the US had reached an agreement to speed up “testing of hypersonic vehicles and related technologies” as part of AUKUS Pillar II.
“Development of hypersonic technology is a key Defence priority, identified in the 2024 National Defence Strategy,” Defence said in a statement.
“It is a capability that can hold time critical and heavily defended targets at risk from increased ranges, enhancing the survivability of the Australian Defence Force against potential threats.”
Mr Albanese said he had “raised issues that matter to us” with Mr Xi.
“I raised the issues of human rights, I raised Taiwan, I raised cyber, I raised the supply of assets to Russia, I raised the ICBM missile test that I’d previously raised as well with the Chinese Premier,” he said, after being asked about the Chinese security threat.
𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥!
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