Anthony Albanese touches down in Laos for major summit

Anthony Albanese is in “the fastest-growing region of the world” for a major summit he says could set Australia up for decades.

Anthony Albanese has touched down in Laos for a major Southeast Asia summit, where he will champion Australia’s economic offerings in talks with some of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an economic union of 10 countries with rapidly growing populations.

Speaking from the Laotian capital Vientiane on Wednesday night (local time), the Prime Minister said the ASEAN summit was an “important opportunity for us to engage with our neighbours in what is, of course, the fastest-growing region of the world in human history.

“This is an important relationship that Australia has with Southeast Asia.
“It’s our second largest trading partner. There are 500,000 jobs in Australia (that) depend upon our trade in Southeast Asia.”

Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will catch up in Laos. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Albanese will also meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the summit in talks he has likened to Cold War diplomacy.

His government has sought to balance multilateral efforts to contain China’s regional influence while pursuing trade normalisation.

Despite tensions playing out in military posturing between Canberra and Beijing, the strategy has cleared trade barriers, unlocking an extra $20bn in Australian exports headed for Chinese ports.

“My message will be a consistent one, which is that we’ll co-operate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must,” Mr Albanese said.

“And we’ll have some direct discussions about some of the disagreements that are there, but also that it is in our interest to communicate with China, which is our largest trading partner.”

More to come

Originally published as Anthony Albanese touches down in Laos for major summit