Canberra: Chinese PM Li Keqiang writes to Australian PM to congratulate Anthony Albanese His election victory, which some Australian media reported on Tuesday, was a thaw of bilateral ties that Beijing put in a deep freeze more than two years ago.
Chinese ministers refused to return phone calls to their Australian counterparts under the former prime minister Scott MorrisonConservative administration.
Albany and Foreign Minister Penny Wong were sworn in on Monday, then immediately flew to Tokyo for a summit with US, Japanese and Indian leaders after Australia’s centre-left Labor Party narrowly won the election on Saturday .
“The sound and stable development of Sino-Australian relations is in line with the fundamental interests and common aspirations of both peoples and is also conducive to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” Li told Albanese. informed of.
Li said, “China stands ready to work with Australia to learn from the past, look to the future and advance the strong and stable development of the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership by adhering to the principles of mutual respect and win-win results.” increasing.”
Abneys confirmed that he had received “congratulatory letters” from Lee and other world leaders.
“I welcome it,” Albanese Said in Tokyo. “We will respond appropriately in time.” Albanese has said he expects bilateral ties to remain difficult despite a change in Australia’s government.
Albanese has promised greater Australian engagement with South Pacific island neighbors to counter the growing Chinese influence in the region.
Labor described the recently announced security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands as Australia’s worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II. Morrison argued that China wanted Labor to win because a Labor administration would be less likely to withstand economic pressure from Beijing.
Albanese told its quad partners on Tuesday that while Australia’s government had changed, the nation’s commitment to their security alliance had not.
“The new Australian Government priorities align with the Quad agenda – addressing climate change and building a stronger and more resilient Indo-Pacific region through improved economic security, improved cyber security, improved energy security and improved environmental and health security. to build,” Albanese said. ,
Asked whether Sino-Australian relations were melting away from their “deep freeze”, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday: “We want to work with countries in our region to ensure that It is stable and prosperous.”
Bilateral relations peaked in 2014 when the Chinese President Xi Jinping Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s administration visited Parliament House a year after he was first elected.
But relations broke free under conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who angered China by blocking covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which continued under conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Although the two countries are free trade partners, China has created a series of official and informal trade barriers to a range of Australian exports worth billions of dollars.
After Conservative lawmakers replaced Turnbull with Morrison as prime minister in 2018, Premier Lee was credited with MorrisonTurnbull used a “positive attitude” to help restore relations kept in the diplomatic freezer.
John Blaxland, Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University, described Lee’s message to the Albanians as a “positive step”.
“It is now up to Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese to take advantage of this by returning to Australia and exploring opportunities to open the freezer door,” Blakesland said.
As bilateral ties have soured since Labor last took office in 2013, China can be expected to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s an important turning point. We know that fundamentally, policy differences are hard to understand, but in domains like these, words matter and the change in tone is really consequential,” Blacksland said.
Chinese ministers refused to return phone calls to their Australian counterparts under the former prime minister Scott MorrisonConservative administration.
Albany and Foreign Minister Penny Wong were sworn in on Monday, then immediately flew to Tokyo for a summit with US, Japanese and Indian leaders after Australia’s centre-left Labor Party narrowly won the election on Saturday .
“The sound and stable development of Sino-Australian relations is in line with the fundamental interests and common aspirations of both peoples and is also conducive to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region,” Li told Albanese. informed of.
Li said, “China stands ready to work with Australia to learn from the past, look to the future and advance the strong and stable development of the bilateral Comprehensive Strategic Partnership by adhering to the principles of mutual respect and win-win results.” increasing.”
Abneys confirmed that he had received “congratulatory letters” from Lee and other world leaders.
“I welcome it,” Albanese Said in Tokyo. “We will respond appropriately in time.” Albanese has said he expects bilateral ties to remain difficult despite a change in Australia’s government.
Albanese has promised greater Australian engagement with South Pacific island neighbors to counter the growing Chinese influence in the region.
Labor described the recently announced security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands as Australia’s worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II. Morrison argued that China wanted Labor to win because a Labor administration would be less likely to withstand economic pressure from Beijing.
Albanese told its quad partners on Tuesday that while Australia’s government had changed, the nation’s commitment to their security alliance had not.
“The new Australian Government priorities align with the Quad agenda – addressing climate change and building a stronger and more resilient Indo-Pacific region through improved economic security, improved cyber security, improved energy security and improved environmental and health security. to build,” Albanese said. ,
Asked whether Sino-Australian relations were melting away from their “deep freeze”, Treasurer Jim Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp on Tuesday: “We want to work with countries in our region to ensure that It is stable and prosperous.”
Bilateral relations peaked in 2014 when the Chinese President Xi Jinping Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s administration visited Parliament House a year after he was first elected.
But relations broke free under conservative Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who angered China by blocking covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which continued under conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Although the two countries are free trade partners, China has created a series of official and informal trade barriers to a range of Australian exports worth billions of dollars.
After Conservative lawmakers replaced Turnbull with Morrison as prime minister in 2018, Premier Lee was credited with MorrisonTurnbull used a “positive attitude” to help restore relations kept in the diplomatic freezer.
John Blaxland, Professor of International Security and Intelligence Studies at the Australian National University, described Lee’s message to the Albanians as a “positive step”.
“It is now up to Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese to take advantage of this by returning to Australia and exploring opportunities to open the freezer door,” Blakesland said.
As bilateral ties have soured since Labor last took office in 2013, China can be expected to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s an important turning point. We know that fundamentally, policy differences are hard to understand, but in domains like these, words matter and the change in tone is really consequential,” Blacksland said.