2 leaders break impasse, meet at highest level for 1st time since 2016
China’s President Xi Jinping and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday met on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
It is the first time that the leaders of the two countries have met at the highest level since 2016.
Albanese described the meeting as “positive” and “constructive.”
“It was good to discuss our relationship with China’s President Xi Jinping today. It was a positive and constructive discussion. We will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in our national interest,” Albanese, the leader of the center-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), simply known as Labor, stated on Twitter.
Ahead of the meeting, he said: “We have had our differences, and Australia won't resile from our interests and values. I look forward to a constructive exchange and dialogue today.”
He said the bilateral meeting with the Chinese leader is taking place during a period of “great global uncertainty.”
“We’re facing challenges of COVID-19 and the recovery, dealing with climate change, and also supply-chain shocks,” he added.
"As we manage these challenges," the Australian prime minister said, "we need to work toward a stable, prosperous, and peaceful" region and an international system "governed by international law and the principles that are enshrined in the United Nations charter."
China and Australia established diplomatic relations in 1972, with the Labor government in Canberra led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
“In 1972, we agreed on principles to guide the relationship based on equality, mutual respect and benefit and a commitment to coexist peacefully,” Albanese recalled.
“And these principles remain important today,” he remarked.
The high-level meeting in Bali comes after bilateral relations between Beijing and Canberra nosedived under former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, as Australia joined western allies in seeking an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as launching AUKUS, a trilateral nuclear cooperation with the UK and the US.
Australia has also joined the so-called Quad, which is led by the US and includes Japan and India. It is a loose security alliance apparently formed to counter China's growing military and economic clout in the Asia-Pacific region.
As the relations spiraled down, with accusations flying across the Pacific Ocean, China imposed trade restrictions on Australian exports throughout last year and into 2020. The bilateral trade volume between the two countries is around $160 billion.
However, China's and Australia's top diplomats, Wang Yi and Penny Wong, had at least three phone conversations in the previous five months, leading to the summit between Xi and Albanese on Tuesday.
It was in 2016 when Xi last met former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Germany on the sidelines of a G-20 summit.
The Chinese side had yet to release the meeting’s outcome when this report was filed.
