Prime Minister Scott Morrison has held a meeting with China’s Vice President during his whirlwind visit to Indonesia.
He seized the opportunity to meet with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, while both were in Jakarta to attend the inauguration of Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo.
Prime Minister Morrison is yet to visit China as Prime Minister, amid a perceived straining of relations with Australia’s major trading partner.
But he insisted "a very clear understanding" had come out of his talks with China’s Vice President that lasted nearly an hour.
“There is much analysis about the relationships that countries have with China,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“There is indeed a lot of over-analysis of those relationships and whether it’s the United States and China, or anyone else.”
Vice President Wang made clear that Australia had requested the talks with the approval of China’s President Xi Jinping, upon the start of their discussions.
“I think the joint message that we send to the media and the public is that parties attach high importance to this relationship,” he said.
Australia has been forced to walk a diplomatic tight rope over its relations with China, in the midst of the nation’s trading tensions with the United States and other regional concerns.
During his recent state visit to Washington, Mr Morrison echoed US President Donald Trump's call for China to drop its "developing economy" status.
“It’s simply a fact that China has arrived at an incredibly impressive point in its economic history,” he said on Sunday.
“It’s impossible to dispute that.”
Two weeks ago, China accused Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton of a ‘shocking’ and ‘malicious slur’.
The condemnation was in response to Mr Dutton suggesting the Chinese Communist Party had conducted cyberattacks and held values inconsistent with Australia.
“We have a very important trading relationship with China, incredibly important, but we’re not going to allow university students to be unduly influenced, we’re not going to allow theft of intellectual property and we’re not going to allow our government bodies or non-government bodies to be hacked into," Mr Dutton had said.
Australia has also raised concerns at a consular level with China over its alleged human rights abuses against Uighurs in Xinjiang province, and the detention of Australian writer Yang Henjung.
China’s big-spending investment in the Pacific has also prompted Australia to adopt its own Pacific "step up" program in response to its growing influence in the region.
Prime Minister Morrison described the talks with the senior Chinese official as "constructive" and "positive", downplaying tensions with the major trading partner.
“It was a chat that we had very much in the spirit of the partnership that we have,” he said.
“And very much inoculated from all of the assessments that are made about the relationship.”
Mr Morrison denied that the diplomatic front presented was a smokescreen.
“I think a very clear understanding of where Australia is coming from, our commitment to the relationship,” he said.
“And I think that is understood and appreciated by China as well.”
The visit to Indonesia was his 20th international trip as Prime Minister.
