The anti-China policies of the past three years, imposed by the former Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, are being superseded by the new Labor government under Anthony Albanese. Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles held talks with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe in Singapore on Sunday, in what he said was an “important first step” in improving strained diplomatic relations, according to SBS News. It represented the first ministerial-level meeting between the Australian and Chinese governments since November 2019.
China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, told the press that relations between the two nations were “at a new juncture of development, facing many challenges and huge opportunities.” China is “committed to conducting friendly exchanges and co-operation with the Australian side for mutual benefits and win-win results. This policy was and is not changing,” Xiao said in a speech at the Australia-China Friendship Association’s national conference in Western Australia. The return to diplomatic exchanges represents “an opportunity to re-engage, to change the trajectory” of Sino-Australian relations, Professor James Laurenceson, the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at UTS, told SBS News. Family, community, and business ties between the nations are “hugely significant” to improving relations, he said.
