Penny Wong says her aim is to help ‘stabilise’ the Australia-China relationship
Australia’s foreign minister tempers expectations of breakthrough when she meets her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali today.
Penny Wong has moved to temper expectations of a breakthrough in Australia’s fractured relationship with China ahead of the first bilateral meeting in almost three years with foreign minister Wang Yi on Friday, saying her aim was to help “stabilise” ties.
Australia’s foreign minister will meet her Chinese counterpart after the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali today where she is set to deliver an uncompromising message to Russian minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow’s “illegal and unprovoked” invasion of Ukraine has triggered a global food and energy crisis.
Senator Wong told reporters on Friday that Australia would not be making any concessions “when it comes to our national interest” but it was in the best interests of both Australia and China for the relationship to be stabilised and “I look forward to an open discussion with my counterpart”.
“I use the phrase stabilise and I think that gives you an indication of the approach we are taking,” she said when asked what the best-case scenario was for the outcome of the bilateral.
“We think stability in the relationship benefits both countries and we are seeking to calmly and in a considered way try to work to stabilise the relationship.”
“We all know we have our differences. There are challenges in the relationship but we believe engagement is necessary to stabilise the relationship.”
Senator Wong said the meeting would be an important opportunity to raise a number of bilateral issues.
China’s trade coercion of Australia is expected to be on the agenda along with the continued detention on national security charges of Chinese Australian journalist Cheng Lei and Chinese Australian academic Dr Yang Hengjun.
“In relation to Cheng Lei we have made our position in relation to her detention clear. She has two children. We’ve made our position in relation to Dr Yang clear. We would anticipate a number of issues raised. We will do so diplomatically and directly,” she said.
Beijing’s position on the Russian war – refusing to condemn Russia and offering propaganda support for Vladimir Putin – will also be on the crowded agenda for the foreign ministers highly anticipated meeting later today.
Ahead of those talks, China’s top diplomat warned Australia and other G20 nations against linking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with Beijing’s threats to Taiwan.
“It is obviously double standards. Beijing rejects any attempts to compare Ukrainian crisis with the Taiwan question and will firmly safeguard its core interests,” Mr Wang said in a bilateral meeting on Thursday with Indian foreign minister Jaishankar Subramanyam.
Mr Wang’s warnings came a week after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese drew parallels between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s menacing of Taiwan at the NATO summit in Madrid, saying Vladimir Putin’s failed bid to take Ukraine showed “attempts to impose change by force on a sovereign country meets resistance”.
The China Daily, in its first personal attack on the new Australian Prime Minister, warned of consequences.
“Last month, when Albanese’s Labor Party came to power, there were high hopes in both countries that it offered the opportunity to reset Australia’s ties with China. Those hopes are diminishing by the day,” the Beijing mouthpiece editorialised.
Asked about China’s broadside, Senator Wong said Russia’s actions clearly constituted an abrogation of the UN charter and international law that holds that “another state will not by threat or force compromise or infringe on the territory integrity of another”.
“In relation to Taiwan, there is a bipartisan position on one China policy. I think there’s a bipartisan position now that we support the status quo and that there be no unilateral change to that status quo.”
Foreign ministers from the world’s top 20 economies will address the global food and energy crisis triggered by the pandemic and Ukrainian war, as well as the fracturing of multilateralism during the meeting on Friday at which Russian minister Lavrov is expected to come under intense pressure to lift Moscow’s blockade of Ukrainian ports.
Western nations are not expected to repeat the walkout staged by US, Canada, France and British officials at a G20 finance meeting in Washington in April, though G7 foreign ministers nations boycotted a dinner reception on Thursday night.
The Australian understands Senator Wong attended the reception but left after Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi’s speech.
Russia has indicated it is ready to help ease global exports of grain and fertilisers, though just hours before the meeting on Friday Vladimir Putin told parliament in Moscow that he was just getting started in Ukraine, daring the west to try to defeat it on the battlefield.
Senator Wong said the G20 offered a key opportunity for G20 nations to put pressure on Russia over the war and address the critical issues of food and energy security.
“Let’s remember what’s behind those tough words, shall we? What’s behind them are the deaths of men, women and children, attacks on civilians, the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war,” she said of Putin’s goading.
“Let everybody remember what Mr Putin is talking about when he uses those words.”
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