Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia as an important milestone in stabilising our relationship with China.

Engagement and dialogue between Australia and China at the highest levels are central to our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Premier Li’s visit, the first by a Chinese Premier since 2017, included political, business and cultural activities across Adelaide, Canberra and Perth.

In Canberra, leaders met for their Annual Leaders’ Meeting, which built on discussions held in Beijing in November 2023.

NAT LOCKE, HOST: Time to catch up with our favourite dinner host of all time, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. Albo, hello.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, good to be with you. Great to be back in Perth.

NATHAN MORRIS, HOST: Thank you so much.

SHAUN MCMANUS, HOST: Yeah, you keep coming over our way, it’s good news.

MORRIS: Why aren't you in the studio with us if you're in Perth, sir?

Premier Li

Minister Wang

Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King

Premier Roger Cook

I’m delighted to be here in Western Australia, where I am almost a local, I think, Premier, with my engagement here with this great state.

I make the point that whilst China is the destination, overwhelmingly above other countries, bigger than the second, third and fourth destination for Australia’s exports. 75 per cent of those exports are from the great state of Western Australia.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, and I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Thank you to Chung Wah Association and the organisers of this event.

It is always such a pleasure to celebrate the great Chinese-Australian community here in Western Australia – as it is anywhere right across our great continent.

And to celebrate you in the presence of Premier Li is truly significant.

This is, of course, the first visit to Australia by a Chinese Premier since 2017.

MARK GIBSON, HOST: There's no doubting the importance of the relationship. China is Australia's biggest trading partner and three quarters of Australia's exports to China come from here in WA. Chinese Premier Li Qiang flew into Perth overnight, alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and today the pair will discuss trade and tariffs, meet with local business leaders, visit a lithium refinery and a green hydrogen research facility. Prime Minister Albanese joins me now. PM, good morning.

Welcoming an international visitor to our shores is an opportunity to showcase Australia’s qualities, our people’s values and our economy’s strengths. So it’s fitting that Western Australia is playing such a prominent role in this week’s visit by the Premier of China.

For a start, WA is home to a proud, generous and growing Chinese-Australian community, people who have worked hard and made a profound contribution to every facet of Western Australian life.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for joining us, I’ve just concluded hosting a State Lunch in Premier Li Qiang's honour, the first Chinese Premier to visit Australia since 2017. Premier Li's presence represents another important step in stabilising our relationship with China. It follows his visit for a couple of days to Adelaide, including the announcement that was made about two younger pandas coming to Adelaide Zoo, as well as the event that was hosted at Penfolds there at the Magill Estate in Adelaide.

It is my honour to welcome you, Your Excellency, Mr Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.

And to welcome all the distinguished guests who join us today.

Premier Li, it is an honour to represent the Government and people of Australia as your host.

And it is a pleasure to reciprocate the generosity with which I was welcomed in China last year.

It was my seventh visit to China, but my first as Prime Minister.

And it was an important opportunity to advance the engagement between our nations.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, thank you very much and firstly, a very warm welcome to Premier Li to Canberra. My visit to China last year was an important one for our relationship, so I'm very pleased to be returning the hospitality that I received in Beijing and Shanghai on a visit that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the recognition of relations between our two great nations. Premier Li is the first Chinese Premier to visit Australia since 2017.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: It is my great pleasure to welcome you to Australia and to reciprocate the wonderful hospitality that I received in Shanghai and Beijing last year, it was a resumption of our Annual Leaders’ Meetings. I did have a wonderful time while I was in China and I know that you enjoyed your visit to Adelaide yesterday. And we will also meet again in Perth tomorrow with the business community.