Anthony Albanese to focus on China challenge

Anthony Albanese says China needs to lift its $20bn-a-year trade bans on Australian exports if it wants to normalise relations ahead of a series of meetings with world leaders.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a Remembrance Day service on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Anthony Albanese says China needs to lift its $20bn-a-year trade bans on Australian exports if it wants to normalise relations ahead of a series of meetings with world leaders set against an uneasy backdrop of regional ­divisions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Prime Minister said he was not setting preconditions ahead of a likely meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week and expected the global economic downturn caused by the Ukraine conflict would dominate a series of discussions over the next nine days at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, the G20 in Bali and APEC leaders’ meeting in Bangkok.

Mr Albanese arrived in Cambodia on Friday night after ­declaring that Australia wanted to stabilise its relationship with China without compromising on its values or sovereignty.

His arrival, along with world leaders including US President Joe Biden, who was scheduled to land in the Cambodian capital on Saturday, coincides with fears of China’s growing influence over the Southeast Asian nation.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned of a “fragile and divided” world as he welcomed ASEAN leaders for the first of a series of weekend leaders’ talks which on Friday included an ASEAN meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Mr Albanese said a bilateral meeting was yet to be locked in with Mr Xi.

On Friday evening, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed President Xi’s attendance at the G20 summit in Bali and APEC leaders’ meeting in Bangkok.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also revealed Mr Xi is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Mr Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Argentine President Alberto Fernández and Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is attending as the current chair of the African Union.

The Chinese spokeswoman said Mr Xi would also meet “others, upon request”, which may include the Australian Prime Minister.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had been expected to address ASEAN by video-link on Friday after appealing ­directly to the Cambodian Prime Minister. But he was prevented from doing so at the eleventh hour after the bloc failed to reach consensus on the issue.

Mr Albanese warned that it was a time of “great global uncertainty” marked by rising inflation and energy prices “due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine”. “Over the next week and a bit, I will have an opportunity to talk with other leading economies about how we deal with these challenges,” he said.

“In addition to that there’s the global challenge of food security, as well as climate change ... strategic competition in the region, increased tension.

“We want an Indo-Pacific that is peaceful, that is stable, and that is secure, and that will be my objective in participating in the three forums, but also in the ­bilateral meetings that I have scheduled with world leaders over that time.”

Mr Albanese also said Australia wanted to stabilise its relationship with the country’s biggest trading partner after a three-year diplomatic freeze ­imposed by Beijing. He pledged to enter any discussions “without any preconditions”.

But he said China, which has signalled it is keen to renew the relationship, should start by axing its trade sanctions against Australian products such as wheat, wine, barley and seafood, which it imposed in early 2020 after Australia called for a UN investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

“There have been issues with the relationship. We have some $20bn of economic sanctions against Australia,” Mr Albanese said. “That is not in Australia’s ­interest in terms of our jobs and the economy. But it’s also not in China’s interest.”

Mr Albanese said China was missing out on Australia’s “world-class products”. His comments follow a marked softening in China’s rhetoric towards Australia, with one of Beijing’s most ­authoritative mouth-pieces declaring in recent days that Beijing was ready to repair its fractured relationship with Canberra. “China values its relations with Australia and regards Australia as an important partner for dialogue and co-operation,” the China Daily said.

If the meeting goes ahead, Mr Albanese will be the first Australian prime minister to have face-to-face talks with Mr Xi since 2019, when Scott Morrison had a brief “pull aside” meeting with the Chinese leader on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka.

The last substantive bilateral meeting between the countries’ leaders was in 2016, when Malcolm Turnbull met with Mr Xi at the G20 summit in Hangzhou

Mr Albanese will hold bilateral talks with Mr Biden during the nine-day trip, potentially as early as this weekend, as the leaders work towards a detailed agreement in the first half of next year to build Australian nuclear submarines.

Mr Biden is set to meet Mr Xi for official talks at the G20 amid deteriorating relations between the US and China over the fate of Taiwan and differences over human rights. The planned talks would be the first face-to-face meeting since Mr Biden became President in January last year.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: Getty Images

The war in Ukraine and its global economic fallout will dominate talks during the trip, but ­particularly at the G20.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit, with the Russian delegation to be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Mr Albanese said it was time for Russia to “back off”.

“Inflation is rising here in Australia, like around the world, as a direct result of the Russian ­invasion of Ukraine, and the pressure that is put on global energy prices,” he said. “Russia needs to get the message that it is isolated amongst those who support the international rule of law, and it should withdraw.”

Beijing is also financing a major upgrade of the former US World War II Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand – an issue expected to be raised by both Mr Albanese and Mr Biden during their respective meetings with Hun Sen this weekend amid fears that Phnom Penh has agreed to host Beijing military assets there.

Mr Albanese has described China’s port expansion works at Ream – including a boat maintenance workshop, two piers, a dry dock, slipway and sand dredging – as “concerning”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Cambodia in August that China’s “exclusive presence” there could damage Cambodia’s sovereignty, regional security, and ASEAN unity”.

Mr Li, who is standing in for Mr Xi in Cambodia, arrived in the capital on Wednesday to officially open the 190km expressway connecting Phnom Penh with the country’s main port at Sihan-oukville on the Gulf of Thailand, a $US2bn project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

In Bali, Mr Albanese will ­deliver a keynote speech reassuring Australia’s trading partners that his government will continue to be a competitive supplier of ­energy resources.