Australia-China Tensions Ease as Albanese Ends Beijing Trip

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(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s prime minister sat down with China’s premier in Beijing Tuesday for the final meeting on a trip that underscored just how much relations between the two key trading partners have improved over the past 18 months.

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The talks effectively mark the restart of annual meetings between the two sides, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said, according to a readout from the Australian government. China is prepared to work with Australia to strengthen communication, deepen trust, expand practical cooperation and properly manage differences, according to the statement.

In response, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized that it was important for all Chinese restrictions on Australian exports to be removed, and discussed how the two nations could cooperate while also managing differences.

“The full resumption of free and unimpeded trade between our two countries is so important,” Albanese said. “Where there is geostrategic competition, we must all manage it carefully, through dialogue and through understanding. Australia will hold firm to our interests and values, as all countries do.”

Commerce between the two nations totaled about $223 billion last year, making China Australia’s biggest trading partner by far.

“Today Premier Li and I had very constructive dialogue, building on the relationship that we’ve helped to build,” Albanese said in a press conference from the Great Hall of the People before he left for a gathering of Pacific Island leaders. This visit has helped to “stabilize the relationship” that is important for Australia’s economy and security as well as stability in the region, he said.

Albanese’s meeting with Li marked the culmination of his four-day visit, a highly-symbolic trip which caps off more than a year of domestic efforts to reverse the previously chilly relationship between Canberra and Beijing. The turnaround happened faster than many anticipated.

The prime minister invited President Xi Jinping to visit Australia after a warm meeting between the two leaders in Beijing on Monday. Albanese and Xi discussed the resumption of full trade relations and joked about pandas and Tasmanian devils. Xi returned the invitation for Albanese to visit China again in the future.

It was the first meeting on Chinese soil between Xi and an Australian prime minister since 2016, sealing a rapid warming in diplomatic relations following the election of Albanese’s center-left Labor government last year.

The visit has largely focused on relationship building between the Chinese and Australian leadership rather than concrete outcomes. At a press conference after the Xi meeting, Albanese said he raised the case of detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who has been held by China for more than four years.

In a joint statement, the two sides agreed to resume the annual leaders’ meeting and other bilateral dialogues, as well as increasing cooperation on climate change and trade. There was no mention in the statement of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that Australia is a member of and that China wants to join.

Trade Accord

In addition, Albanese said Xi mentioned China’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, a wide-reaching trade agreement that Australia is a member of, and which requires all signatories to approve new entrants.

Relations between China and Australia had rapidly deteriorated in recent years as a result of factors on both sides. As China took a more assertive position internationally, Australia banned technology giant Huawei Technologies Co. from its national 5G rollout and undertook legal changes to crack down on foreign political interference that were viewed as targeting Beijing.

The nadir came after then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2020 called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19, infuriating Beijing. In return, the Chinese government put in place punitive trade actions on Australian exports to China including on barley, wine and coal.

(Updates with comments from Albanese in sixth paragraph)

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