Fifty years have passed since Gough Whitlam established diplomatic relations with China. This anniversary marks the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs tomorrow to Beijing. You consider it an important step in the normalization of relations between Australia and China.
The last three years, relations between the two countries have been frozen with China imposing tariffs on Australian products.
However, the change of government in Canberra saw a new wind blowing in Australia's foreign policy and especially its relations with the Asia-Pacific countries.
Australian Prime Minister Anthoni Albanese has already met with China's president — at the G20 Summit in November — while Foreign Minister Penny Wong had a meeting with her Chinese counterpart in September, at the UN General Assembly. Wong will visit China tomorrow where she will meet with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
The visit of the Australian minister will be short: it will last 24 hours. Ms Wong said it is very important to stabilize Australia's relationship with China.
“Australia seeks a stable relationship with China — we will work together where we can, we will disagree where we need to and promote the national interest,” Wong and went on to say that “there are a lot of rumors in the last 24 hours about what can be achieved.
What I want to say is this: the expectation must be that we will have a meeting and that dialogue itself has a central role in stabilising the relationship.”
He said that he would continue to push for the release of prisoner journalist and TV host Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun. Wong will also be the lifting of China's trade sanctions on Australian products — the cost of which amounts to $20 billion.
He stressed, however, that the emphasis will be on creating a more open channel of communication. This is the first visit to the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2018.
The last visit of an Australian minister to China was one year after - in 2019 - when Simon Birmingham then Minister of Commerce came to China. Birmingham referring to the Wong visit said that the lifting of duties and the release of the two Australian prisoners should be priorities for Penny Wong.
PM Anthony Albanse, in today's article in The Australia, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China, he said that Australia
“will always be in a better position when in dialogue” with China. This was the basis for our diplomatic relations in 1972.”
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