Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met today with the senior Chinese leadership in Beijing, as part of his second official visit to the country since being elected in 2022.
The visit is an opportunity to continue advancing Australia’s economic and security interests, while stabilising the relationship with our largest trading partner China.
Direct engagement between Australia and China at the highest levels is central to a constructive relationship and enables differences to be addressed and opportunities to be maximised for Australia.
Australia will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest.
In Beijing, Prime Minister Albanese held his fourth meeting with President Xi Jinping.
He also met Premier Li Qiang for their third Annual Leaders’ Meeting and had his second meeting with Chairman Zhao Leji of the National People’s Congress.
The Prime Minister and Premier Li also participated in the 8th Australia-China CEO Roundtable and witnessed the signature of bilateral arrangements to progress cooperation in trade, agriculture and tourism.
This was the first CEO Roundtable in China attended by an Australian Prime Minister since 2016.
It is important that we have strong trading relationships – with one in every four Australian jobs relying on trade.
Outcomes of the Annual Leaders’ Meeting include a new Memorandum of Understanding on activating the built-in review mechanism of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), which will allow industry and the community to share views on how to improve the agreement.
Australia and China also signed export protocols to allow Australian mainland apple farmers – responsible for 90 per cent of Australia’s grown apples – to export to China for the first time and for Chinese jujubes to be imported from China.
Following the success of the Australia-China Steel Decarbonisation Roundtable in Shanghai, Australia and China have agreed to establish a new Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation.
This will provide Australia with timely insights and input into the Chinese government’s planning on steel, including new opportunities for our domestic mining and steel industries.
Tourism is an important part of Australia and China’s economic relationship, as well as contributing to our people to people and community connections.
Australia and China renewed a Memorandum of Understanding between Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism to assist in growing traveller numbers to the benefit of the tourism industry across Australia’s cities and regions.
Tourism Australia and the China Media Group also signed a new Strategic Cooperation Agreement providing Australia with greater tourism media exposure in China, showcasing Australia as a world-class tourism destination.
This follows the new MOU signed between Tourism Australia and Trip.com to help drive deeper tourism ties between Australia and China.
These new initiatives announced today will boost Australian jobs and support Australian businesses.