Anthony Albanese won’t reveal private conversation with President Xi Jinping after Chinese warship injures Australian navy divers

Anthony Albanese says he will not reveal details of his recent sideline conversation with President Xi Jinping, but insists Beijing is very aware of concerns about China’s “dangerous” use of sonar injuring several Australian navy divers.

Anthony Albanese says he will not divulge details of his recent sideline conversation with President Xi Jinping, but insists Beijing is very aware of concerns about China’s “dangerous” use of sonar injuring several Australian navy divers.

The Prime Minister said Australia had raised the incident with Chinese officials “through all of the normal channels”, but would not disclose if he had mentioned the situation in an informal conversation with Mr Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ (APEC) meeting in San Francisco last week.

“I don’t talk about private meetings on the sidelines, discussions I have with any world leader,” he told Sky News on Monday.

“That’s how you keep communications open, but I can assure you that we raised these issues very clear.”

Mr Albanese said the Chinese warship had been clearly warned it was putting navy divers at risk at the time, and the sonar incident was the type of event that “does do damage” to Australia’s broader relationship with China.

“We are very concerned, this was dangerous, it was unsafe,” Mr Albanese said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC leaders’ summit in San Francisco. Picture: Kent Nishimura / Getty Images North America via AFP

“This is a sort of incident … why we need communication guardrails and we need to avoid a reckless event such as this.”

Australia on Saturday accused the People’s Liberation Army navy of using sonar pulses that injured Australian naval divers who were trying to clear fishing nets from the propellers of the HMAS Toowoomba as it stopped in international waters in Japan’s exclusive economic zone on Tuesday.

Mr Albanese was travelling back from the US by the time Australia’s accusation went public, but since his return the Opposition repeatedly called for him to clarify if the incident was specifically discussed with Mr Xi or China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the APEC summit in what would have been the days after the incident.

Mr Albanese said he while he would not talk about private informal conversations publicly, he would “always, without exception” speak up for Australia’s national interests.

“I made it very clear in China here that we remain with differences together with China,” he said.

“What we need to do is to make sure that we work on them so that a small incident doesn’t become a larger incident doesn’t become (an incident) potentially with really dire consequences.”

Australian navy divers were detangling fishing net from the propellers of HMAS Toowoomba when a nearby Chinese warship used sonar pulses.

Mr Albanese said this was why he had spoken about the need for “military-to-military” communication between the US and China, as well as Australia.

“Dialogue brings understanding and understanding is always good, because the consequences … are that they do damage to the relationships, and this certainly is an event that does do damage and we’ve made that very clear.”

Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson, who described himself as a supporter of Mr Albanese’s busy international travel schedule, said any failure by the PM to raise the incident with Chinese President Xi Jinping was an “abdication of leadership”.

“I’m someone who’s quite supportive of the Prime Minister’s international travel, I do believe it’s in the national interest in the strategic environment we live in,” Mr Paterson said.

“But the whole purpose of this travel is that he advocates for Australia’s interests, that he stands up for Australia.

“Now if he met Xi Jinping and Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China, while he was in San Francisco and he didn’t raise this then frankly that is a desertion of his responsibilities as Prime Minister. That is an abdication of leadership.”