Prime Minister says 'we need to talk to develop mutual understanding' as China says ready to meet Australia 'halfway'
Anthony Albanese will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit, ending a three-year diplomatic freeze between the two countries.
The Australian Prime Minister confirmed the conversation would take place on Tuesday evening on the sidelines of the G20. It will follow a landmark meeting on Monday night between Joe Biden and the Chinese president – the first face-to-face talks between the two men during Biden's presidency.
Diplomatic signals have pointed to a breakthrough meeting with Australia for the best part of the week. Albanese spoke with China's prime minister, Li Keqiang, at a dinner in Phnom Penh on Saturday night and then hinted that he was happy to meet Xi in Bali "without preconditions" as part of efforts to stabilize relations.
Albanese met Biden on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit for 40 minutes, with the two comparing notes on each other's strategies ahead of the G20 summit.
After the meeting between Albanese and Biden, China's prime minister said on Monday through state media his country was ready to meet Australia "halfway" in recognition that the two countries this year marked 50 years of diplomatic recognition.
The Australian prime minister confirmed his own meeting with Xi soon after landing in Bali on Monday afternoon.
"We are entering this discussion in good faith," Albanese told reporters.
“There are no prerequisites in this discussion. I look forward to a constructive dialogue. I've said since I became prime minister, but even before that, that dialogue is always a good thing. We need to talk to develop mutual understanding.”
Relations between Australia and China remain rife with irritation – from trade sanctions to deepening differences over human rights and competing visions of what security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific should look like – but Tuesday's talks are the first step toward potentially reducing the grudges that have existed since year 2019.
Albanese begins its G20 program
Albanese opened the G20 program on Monday with a bilateral meeting with Indonesia's president and summit host, Joko Widodo, before attending a business event in the evening. The prime minister will also meet British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, French president, Emmanuel Macron, and Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, in the coming days.
With world leaders gathered for the summit, officials are trying to debate a joint statement to be released at the end of the G20 talks. The Indonesian summit hosts have made it clear that they want to make a joint statement rather than Jokowi issuing his own chairman's statement.
But there is disagreement behind the scenes over how the consensus summit statement will refer to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. European countries wanted to issue a strong rebuke but China and Russia refused to agree to harsh words.
Officials are exploring the potential for the statement to be issued in a separate paragraph, allowing condemnation by a majority of G20 nations and profane language from other nations. It seems probable that the differences will not be bridged.
As well as managing the fallout from the European war, the G20 talks will address a number of pressing economic issues, including a coordinated response to inflation challenges, risks of a hard landing in major economies, supply-side measures to counter global supply shocks. , and debt relief for poor countries now debt levels are becoming unsustainable with rising interest rates.
It will also discuss the pandemic fund which is a joint initiative between the Biden and Widodo administrations. Australia has pledged $50 million to help get the international fund up and running. It will aim to assist countries with more effective pandemic preparedness.
Albanese's bilateral program with Indonesia at the G20 is a business focus as attracting more investment and expanding trade prospects are top priorities for Widodo.
When Alba visited the country shortly after Labor's election victory in May, he was accompanied by a substantial business delegation. There was also a follow-up visit to former Minister of Manpower Greg Combet accompanied by representatives of the Australian pension fund.
Gaining more access to the Indonesian market is a high priority for Australia given that some trade with China has been disrupted by sanctions flowing from the protracted diplomatic row between Beijing and Canberra. This article was written by EDUKASI CAMPUS.