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Australia’s Albanese hopes to ask Xi to lift trade restrictions | Business and Economy

The Australian leader said he wanted to develop relations with China based on cooperation and national interests.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he plans to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to lift trade restrictions on billions of dollars of exports if the two leaders meet for the first time this month.

Speaking before leaving for the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on Friday, Albanese said he would ask Mr Xi to lift “counterproductive” tariffs and other trade measures if the two met. in a series of high-level meetings, including with G20 leaders. summit in Bali, starting on Tuesday.

“It is not in the interest of Australia, the wine industry, the meat industry and other industries that sanctions have been put in place. But it also does not benefit China,” said Albanese, who The centre-left Labor Party comes to power in Maysaid in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Albanese, who replaced Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison, said the meeting with Mr Xi was not “over” but he hoped to develop a relationship with China based on cooperation and national interest, after much years of difficult relations between the parties.

Albanese’s comments come amid expectations that the Australian leader may meet Xi in the coming days, either during the G20 summit or the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok. Mr. Xi is not expected to attend the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, where Albanese will meet with regional leaders before traveling to Indonesia and Thailand next week.

James Laurenceson, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, told Al Jazeera: “Given Xi’s concentration of power, diplomacy with the greatest potential for success are direct requests from foreign leaders to Mr. Xi.

“Trade sanctions and detainees will be at the top of Albanese’s list of key demands. I hope he will send the message that Australia’s policy towards Taiwan remains the same and that we are not in favor of economic restraint on China.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this week told his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, that the two countries’ relations had recently seen “positive changes”, and called on each side to address “these problems”. legitimate concerns” of the other party, according to China’s foreign ministry.

China’s ambassador to Australia said in September that the two leaders were likely to meet without conditions after the Labor Party’s election victory opened the door to “the possibility of a reset”. relationship”.

No Australian leader has met Xi since 2019, when Mr Morrison spoke to the Chinese leader on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

While China is Australia’s largest trading partner, relations between the countries have soured in recent years amid a series of disputes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, security issues. nation and human rights.

Beijing has restricted billions of dollars of Australian exports, including beef, timber, sugar, lobster and wine, since 2020, as Morrison called for an independent international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19.



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