Anthony Albanese brings ‘goodwill’ to Xi Jinping talks
Anthony Albanese will meet Xi Jinping in Bali on Tuesday, raising hopes of a breakthrough that will stabilise ties and wind back Beijing’s $20bn-a-year trade bans.
Anthony Albanese will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali on Tuesday, raising hopes of a breakthrough that will stabilise the Australia-China relationship and wind back Beijing’s $20bn-a-year trade bans on Australian exports.
The Prime Minister said he would go into the meeting with “goodwill”, after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang declared his country was “ready to meet Australia half way”.
The meeting, scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the G20 summit, will be the first formal talks between an Australian leader and Mr Xi since 2016.
It signals a thaw in China’s diplomatic deep freeze after the Morrison government called for a UN inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
The Albanese-Xi meeting follows high-stakes bilateral talks late on Monday between the Chinese President and his US counterpart Joe Biden aimed at lowering the temperature of the strategic rivalry between the world’s superpowers.
They opened their meeting with a handshake as both men stressed the need to manage differences and avoid conflict.
“The world has come to a crossroads,” Mr Xi said, vowing a “candid” discussion of issues that had riven relations between the world’s leading powers.
“The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” he said.
Mr Biden greeted Mr Xi with a smile that belied the growing competition between the two nations.
Mr Biden said he wanted the US and China to “manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming conflict”.
Mr Albanese said he would put forward Australia’s position on key issues in his meeting with Mr Xi but would not go into the meeting demanding the easing of Chinese sanctions.
“I look forward to having a constructive discussion with President Xi tomorrow,” he said on the tarmac of Bali’s Denpasar airport.
“We enter this discussion with goodwill. There are no preconditions on this discussion. I’m looking forward to having constructive dialogue. I’ve said since I became the Prime Minister, but before then as well, that dialogue is always a good thing. We need to talk in order to develop mutual understanding.”
The confirmation of Mr Albanese’s upcoming meeting with the Chinese President, which was not on Mr Xi’s original G20 schedule, follows months of delicate behind-the-scenes negotiations by Australian and Chinese officials, and an icebreaking four-minute talk between Mr Albanese and Mr Li on Saturday night at the ASEAN summit in Cambodia.
Mr Li told China’s Xinhua news agency on Monday that Australia-China relations had “gone through a difficult patch”, but China was ready to restore the relationship in co-operation with Australia.
“Taking office as the Prime Minister of the new Labor government, you expressed Australia’s readiness to work with China to bring the bilateral relationship back on track,” Mr Li said, in comments directed at Mr Albanese.
“China is ready to meet Australia half way, and work with Australia to seize the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations to promote sustained, sound and steady growth of China-Australia relations.”
The hoped-for breakthrough will come as G20 leaders look to hammer out a co-ordinated approach to tackling the global inflation crisis, and put pressure on Russia and China over Mr Putin’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
Labor has sought to differentiate itself from the former Morrison government, which warned of potential military conflict with China, by pursuing a “quiet diplomacy” approach that avoided inflaming tensions with Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Jim Chalmers, who attended a B20 summit of business leaders ahead of the G20, said normalising the Australia-China relationship was a top priority for the government. “All of our efforts are into making this relationship between Australia and China more stable,” the Treasurer told Bloomberg television.
He said while Australia would stand up for its trade and other national interests, it was also in “everyone’s interests” for the relationship to be stabilised. “We’d like to see as part of the stabilising of our relationship some of those trade restrictions lifted – that’s important for us, it’s important for our economy,” Dr Chalmers said.
Trade Minister Don Farrell said Australia was looking for “possible off-ramps” for Beijing that would allow the lifting of Chinese sanctions on key Australian exports including barley, seafood and wine. Senator Farrell said Australia would continue to work to diversify its trade relationships to protect the economy and safeguard the nation’s security.
The G20 Summit – bringing together the leaders of the world’s 19 biggest economies plus the European Union – will look to address supply shocks and improve global productivity to drive down fuel and food prices that have soared since the Russian President launched his invasion of Ukraine. Western leaders at the summit will seek greater transparency on debt sustainability, but China is unlikely to agree to open its lending books to scrutiny.
A global financial safety net for developing countries will also be on the table, offering special drawing rights for financially distressed nations, along with a special fund to provide early warnings of future pandemics.
Australian officials have been working with Indonesia and key partners helping the host nation try to negotiate a final statement that might be backed by all G20 delegates. Consensus appears unlikely, with Russia and China playing hardball over Western countries’ demands for a strong statement condemning Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In that case, host nation leader Joko Widodo will issue a G20 chairman’s statement, setting out the consensus points and noting China and Russia’s disagreement.
Additional reporting: AFP
More Coverage
Morrison joins Australian space race
Former prime minister Scott Morrison has joined Space Centre Australia as the firm seeks to raise $US250m to capitalise on booming demand for space access services.
Libs, US not aligned on Israel stance
Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson has asked the PM to be open on where the Australian government disagreed with the US position on Israel, as the Senator made comments at odds with the Biden administration's calls.