Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said today during a meeting in China with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong that Beijing and Canberra have had a difficult relationship lately from which they “have to learn” in order to return to the “original intentions”. of his diplomacy.
These statements were made within the framework of the Sixth Strategic and Foreign Affairs Dialogue -which was last held in 2018-, which brought both ministers together in the capital of the Asian giant and with which the 50th anniversary of the beginning of relations will be commemorated between both nations, in what he considers an “opportunity to return” to the original reason for these ties.
“China-Australia relations have long been at the forefront of China’s relations with developed states, bringing tangible benefits to the two countries and their peoples,” Wang said in a statement released by Australia’s Foreign Ministry. China at the end of the meeting held in Beijing this Wednesday.
“In recent years, China-Australia relations have faced difficulties and setbacks that we don’t like to see. We must fully learn from these lessons,” Wang added.
According to the Chinese foreign minister, “as major countries in Asia-Pacific, we have highly complementary economic structures,” and insisted that “there were no historical grievances or fundamental conflicts of interest between our two countries.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping also took advantage of the anniversary to send a message to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday, in which he assured that he attaches “great importance” to the relationship between the two countries, which, according to Xi, must be based in “mutual respect,” the Xinhua news agency reported today.
In turn, Xi expressed his hope to “take the anniversary as an opportunity to promote the sustainable development of the partnership between the two countries.”
Albanese, who met with Xi in November taking advantage of the G20 summit (the countries with the most developed and most emerging economies) in Bali (Indonesia), has redoubled diplomatic efforts to bring his country closer to China, its main trading partner and with who has registered multiple discrepancies in recent years.
The problems were exacerbated by several disagreements, including the exclusion in 2018 for security reasons of Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from participating in Australia’s 5G network.
Relations have also deteriorated due to issues such as the militarization of the Asian giant or the approval in Australia of laws against foreign interference and espionage, after learning of Chinese donations to politicians and cyber attacks on state agencies and universities, attributed to Beijing.
China responded by imposing import tariffs on several Australian products, one of the most sensitive points for Canberra.