Australia foreign minister Penny Wong to visit China as diplomatic ties improve
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will visit Beijing on Tuesday in the first trip by a top Australian diplomat to China’s capital since 2018, a major sign of warming relations between the two countries.
The Australian government announced the two-day visit in a statement on Monday, saying it would coincide with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and China. Wong is expected to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“Australia seeks a stable relationship with China; we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in the national interest,” the government in Canberra said in a statement.
No Australian foreign minister has conducted an official visit to China since November 2018 as relations between Canberra and Beijing rapidly worsened in recent years.
Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison didn’t undertake a state visit to Australia’s largest trading partner during more than three years in power.
In late 2018, Australia became the first country to ban Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies from participating in the country’s 5G rollout, sparking a global move away from the provider.
But it was a call by Morrison in April 2020 for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 that caused the relationship with China to spiral, leading to trade sanctions on a number of Australian exports valued at billions of dollars.
Since winning an Australian election in May, the center-left Labor Party under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has sought to reset relations with China. Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, Albanese said he wanted to improve ties with Australia’s largest export destination.
The chairman of the Business Council of Australia’s international engagement committee, Warwick Smith, said the business community welcomed Wong’s trip.
Because of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, there would not be a business delegation travelling with Wong, he said.
Smith added that business wanted to see “some material outcomes in the near term” from the meeting.
Two Australian writers, Cheng Lei and blogger Yang Hengjun, are detained in Beijing awaiting the outcome of national security trials.
“I would like to see my colleague Cheng Lei released and I would like to see a rollback more rapidly of these trade containments,” Smith said.
In November, Albanese met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali.
Defence and foreign ministers from both countries have conducted bilateral meetings for the first time in years since the change of government.