Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told China that it must lift trade bans on Australian goods if it wants to improve relations between the two countries.
Attending the Quad Summit in Tokyo with leaders from the United States, India and Japan, the Prime Minister urged Beijing to raise the trade tariffs it had imposed on Australian exports.
“Australia is looking for good relations with all countries,” Albanese said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said China must drop its trade bans to improve relations with Australia. (AP)
“But it is not Australia that has changed, but China. It is China that has imposed sanctions on Australia. There is no justification for doing so. And that is why they must withdraw.”
For the past two years, China has imposed trade bans on Australian products such as barley, wine, coal and seafood.
Relations have been at their lowest level in the last two years following trade disputes, the origins of COVID-19 and allegations of Chinese interference in Australian domestic politics.
But after Labor won the federal election on Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang sent a congratulatory message to Albanese and called for improved relations.
Australian exporters have been affected by Chinese trade tariffs for the past two years. (AP)
China’s security deal with the Solomon Islands was also discussed by Quad leaders on Tuesday. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to the Solomon Islands this week to formally sign the agreement.
Albanese also spoke about the Ukraine crisis in his first meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Biden “commended Australia’s strong support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion, and the leaders agreed on the importance of continued solidarity, including to ensure that this event is never repeated in the Indo-Pacific.” said a White House statement.
The four Quad leaders closed the summit overnight with a joint statement promising their “firm commitment to a free and open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.”
The statement highlighted “challenges to order based on maritime regulations, including the East and South China Seas,” both waters that have been disputed for a long time, with overlapping land claims by numerous countries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on the left, shares a joke with US President Joe Biden at his bilateral meeting at the Quad Summit in Tokyo. (AP)
China claims almost all of the vast South China Sea as its sovereign territory. He has been building and militarizing his facilities there, turning the islands into military bases and runways, and supposedly creating a maritime militia that could have hundreds of boats.
Leaders also discussed their responses to the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and “reiterated our firm determination to maintain peace and stability in the region,” the statement said.
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