Vientiane, Laos — Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met on Thursday on the sidelines of the leaders’ meetings on East Asia cooperation, marking a significant step forward in the steadily advancing China-Australia relations.
Premier Li highlighted the recent progress in bilateral ties, noting that practical cooperation in various fields is gradually progressing, while subnational and people-to-people exchanges are becoming more active. “China is willing to further strengthen mutual understanding with Australia and jointly build a more mature, stable, and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership,” Li said. “This will better benefit the two peoples and contribute to regional and world peace, stability, and development.”
Emphasizing the mutually beneficial and win-win nature of China-Australia relations, Premier Li expressed China’s readiness to share more development opportunities with Australia. He called for continued strengthening of exchanges on macroeconomic policies and expansion of cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, green development, and scientific and technological innovation. “We aim to add more impetus to the shared development of both countries,” he added.
Li assured that China will further deepen reforms and vigorously promote high-level opening up, continuing to create a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized first-class business environment. “We welcome more Australian enterprises to invest in China,” he said, expressing hope that Australia will provide a fair, safe, non-discriminatory, and predictable business environment for Chinese enterprises operating in Australia.
The Chinese Premier also underscored the importance of expanding cultural and people-to-people exchanges to consolidate the foundation of bilateral relations. “A peaceful, stable, and prosperous Asia-Pacific is in the common interests of China, Australia, and other countries in the region,” Li stated. “China is ready to work with Australia to safeguard peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region with concrete actions.”
Prime Minister Albanese acknowledged the positive and stable development momentum of Australia-China relations, with intensive dialogues in diplomatic, economic, and other fields. “We are willing to further strengthen high-level and all-level dialogue and cooperation with China,” Albanese said. He emphasized deepening cooperation in areas such as economy and trade, green economy, clean energy, climate change, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges to promote the sustained development of bilateral ties.
Albanese reaffirmed Australia’s adherence to the one-China policy and expressed willingness to strengthen coordination with China in multilateral fields. “We aim to jointly safeguard regional and world peace, stability, and prosperity,” he concluded.
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Chinese premier hails recent progress in China-Australia ties
cgtn.com
