PM to address Darwin Port sale during China visit with President Xi Jinping next week

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address Darwin Port sale during his China visit next week according to China media reports.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping to address Darwin Port sale. Picture: PMO

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the potential sale of Darwin Port during his China visit next week, according to Chinese media reports.

The South China Morning Post is reporting the PM will meet China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing “around July 15 as a friendly gesture to keep relations on a positive track.”.

It would be Prime Minister Albanese’s second official visit to China.

The Hong Kong-based newspaper says a major task on Albanese’s agenda, besides routine topics like trade, will be to explain Australia’s stance on Chinese investment – in particular, addressing the controversy over the ownership and potential government-influenced sale of the Darwin Port.

The access entry to the Port of Darwin (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

The Post quoted analysts saying it would make for a difficult conversation, as Beijing has been on high alert to future divestments following US action over Chinese-owned ports at the Panama Canal.

The South China Morning Post says Prime Minister Albanese will attend the China International Supply Chain Expo, an event held in the China capital since 2023.

This year’s expo runs from July 15-20.

The Darwin Port lease buyback remains shrouded in mystery after the government and opposition announced during the 2025 Federal Election campaign the facility would be returned to Australian hands.

Darwin Port was leased to Chinese company Landbridge for 99 years in 2015 by the Northern Territory’s CLP Government. In early 2013 a delegation led by NT Infrastructure Minister Peter Styles travelled to Canberra to meet Mr Albanese, who was then federal infrastructure minister, to seek commonwealth funding to upgrade the port, but the appeal was rejected.

It was after this meeting the NT Government stepped-up its efforts to lease the port to the private sector to end the facility’s drag on the Northern Territory’s budget.

Freight loaded at Darwin Port today.

Mr Albanese has refused to be drawn on a timeline for the sale, a potential cost to secure the lease buyback or the extent of any federal government contribution.

“When you negotiate commercially, what you don’t do is respond publicly in that way because that is not in taxpayers’ interests,” he said.

“If you say you want to buy a house by April 13, guess what? You lose your power in the negotiations.

“We certainly are looking for a private buyer and there is interest.

“We won’t go through the commercial negotiations and the interested parties, but there are interested parties for the Port of Darwin.

“If we can secure an arrangement and a transfer of ownership back to Australian control in an orderly way without commonwealth intervention and compulsory acquisition we will do so. “But we are prepared also to use compulsory acquisition.”

Landbridge has continually maintained it is not interested in a Darwin Port lease buy back.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman has previously urged Australia to not “overstretch” the concept of national security and to not “politicise” normal business co-operation.

“We urge Australia to provide a fair, non-discriminatory and predictable business environment for Chinese business there,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

The company’s non-executive director for Australia, Terry O’Connor, has also protested that Landbridge has been targeted by lies, aimed at firming up a narrative that the Port of Darwin leaseholders needed to be ousted.