China’s ambassador to Australia says a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may be on the cards, with Beijing willing to reset relations.
Ambassador Xiao Qian says he’s been in contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to see how both countries could work towards a top-level meeting, but there’s still work to be done.
“For both sides to move forward … let’s meet each halfway as exactly where halfway between,” Qian told 9News.
“We can talk about those but we need efforts from both sides.”
The ambassador would not be drawn on whether any meeting would be held at the G20 meeting of leading industrial nations later this year.
He says the new Labor government provided an opportunity to reset the Canberra-Beijing relationship after a period of heightened tensions.
Australia has joined other western countries in backing a UN report into China’s mass detention of the Uyghurs.
Australia has been trying to stem Chinese influence in the Pacific after the Solomon Islands and China signed a controversial security agreement.
It has triggered concern that China may build a naval base there, just 1700km from the Queensland coast.
Last month in a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra, Xiao claimed China has no interest in meddling with Australia’s foreign policy, and denied there were moves afoot to set up a military base in the Solomon Islands.
He also said the West should see China “as a partner rather than a rival”.
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