‘Australia should always stand up for our values’: Anthony Albanese addresses China, climate change at Quad meeting

Anthony Albanese has declared “China has changed” before jetting off to Tokyo for a summit with three other nations that is sure to anger the global superpower.

Anthony Albanese has declared “China has changed” in his first address on foreign policy as Prime Minister ahead of a trip to Tokyo to discuss how to control the global superpower’s growing influence.

The Labor leader immediately flew to a Japan summit to announce that Australia is ready to engage on climate change.

In his first speech after being elected, Mr Albanese said the Tokyo talks will be “a good way to send a message to the world that there’s a new government in Australia”.

US, Japanese and Indian leaders, known as the Quad, were expected to echo past calls for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” and warnings against “unilateral” moves in the region — without directly naming China.

“It’s a government that represents a change in terms of the way that we deal with the world on issues like climate change,” he said, adding that Australia’s relationship with Beijing would “remain a difficult one”.

The two countries have not held ministerial-level talks in two years, and China’s government has hit a range of Australian goods with politically tinged sanctions.

“It is China that has changed, not Australia, and Australia should always stand up for our values,” he said.

Mr Albanese said the Tokyo talks will be ‘a good way to send a message to the world that there’s a new government in Australia’.

But he also vowed not to “play politics” with national security, which threatens to fray ties with Beijing further.

Chinese state-backed media outlet The Global Times initially said the election of Mr Albanese “provides a turning point for the China-Australia relationship which is currently at low ebb”.

“Morrison, in particular, put his tough stance against China at the forefront of his election campaign,” it said.

“However, Saturday’s results once again showed that Australians care more about their government’s commitments and actions on issues related to people’s wellbeing, such as climate change, soaring prices and wage, than the unwarranted China threat.”

But on Monday the Beijing mouthpiece said Mr Albanese’s attendance at the Quad was “the first test of the political wisdom of the new Australian government”.

“Especially on whether it could get rid of the shadow of previous Scott Morrison’s anti-China strategy that deeply hurt his own economy and trade,” an article read.

Mr Albanese admitted Australia’s relationship with China ‘would remain a difficult one’.

The loosely organised “Quad” grouping is united by its desire for a counterweight to China’s expanding economic, military and technological influence.

But it is divided on Ukraine, with India the only member not to have explicitly criticised or imposed sanctions on Moscow, instead increasing its imports of Russian oil.

Many observers are convinced that Beijing is eyeing the international response to the war in Ukraine as it considers its options for “reunifying” Taiwan with the mainland.

Quad leaders “will be talking about ways they can increase deterrence and military co-operation” concerning China, said Robert Dujarric, co-director of Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University.

The May 24 forum “will show Beijing that they are working together to contain, to deter, against China,” he told AFP.

After the meetings with Quad leaders on Tuesday, Albanese said he would return to Australia the following day and convene a meeting of his ministers next week.

His top team include Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who will join the prime minister in Tokyo, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher — all sworn in Monday.

Australia’s 31st Prime Minister has vowed not to ‘play politics’ with national security, which threatens to fray ties with Beijing further.

Notable among the foreign leaders who have welcomed Albanese’s election are the ones from Australia’s Pacific Island neighbours, whose very existence is threatened by rising sea levels.

“Of your many promises to support the Pacific, none is more welcome than your plan to put the climate first — our people’s shared future depends on it,” said Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.

It is already clear that the vote was a political earthquake in Australia. For many Australians, the election was a referendum on polarising former prime minister Scott Morrison.

Voters responded at the ballot box with a sharp rebuke of his Liberal-National coalition — ousting top ministers from parliament and virtually expelling the party from major cities.

For Morrison’s conservative allies, the defeat is already spurring a battle for the soul of the party.

A leadership contest is informally underway, with moderates blaming the loss on a drift to the right.

- with AFP