by Ryan Woo
BEIJING (Reuters) – A “healthy and stable” relationship with Australia serves the interests of each country, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday as he met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing.
He is the first Australian leader to visit the Chinese capital since 2016 as relations between the two countries have become strained in recent years over various issues – from security to the origin of COVID-19 -, which triggered Chinese trade retaliation on Australian products including wine, barley and beef.
A strong relationship between China and Australia “will be beneficial in the future”, Anthony Albanese told Xi Jinping during their second face-to-face meeting in a year.
The Australian Prime Minister, who took office in May 2022, has worked to repair relations with China, including during a meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia last November.
In the process, China lowered its trade barriers, allowing coal imports in January and removing tariffs on barley in August. Last month, Beijing agreed to review the 218% customs duties on Australian wine.
“I think there are some promising signs,” Anthony Albanese told reporters Monday.
Disagreements nevertheless remain between the two countries: Camberra is concerned about China’s desire for hegemony within the Pacific island nations, while Beijing fears Australia’s security alliance with the United States and Great Britain. -Brittany in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australia’s support for a United Nations decision rejecting Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea has also angered Chinese authorities.
Australia considers the South China Sea to be an important route for its trade with Japan and South Korea.
“What I have said is that we must cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest,” Anthony Albanese said Monday.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo with contributions from Kirsty Needham in Sydney, Blandine Hénault for the French version, editing by Zhifan Liu)
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