Chinese, Australian PMs meet at Australian Parliament

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and senior ministers from the two administrations met in Parliament on Monday to discuss thorny issues, including persistent trade barriers, conflicts between their militaries in international waters and China’s desire to invest in critical minerals.

Li, China’s most senior leader after President Xu Jinping, arrived in the South Australian state capital Adelaide on Saturday and in the national capital of Canberra on Sunday evening, in the first visit to the country a Chinese Prime Minister in seven years.

Li planned to highlight China’s interest in acquiring a larger stake in Australia’s critical minerals sector, key to the global transition to renewable energy sources, by visiting a Chinese-controlled lithium processing plant on Tuesday in the State of Western Australia.

Li traveled to New Zealand before Australia and is expected to stop in Malaysia before returning to China.

Bilateral relations have improved markedly since the election of Albanese’s center-left Labor Party in 2022, following nine years of conservative government in Australia.

Most of the official and unofficial trade barriers introduced by Beijing in 2020 on coal, cotton, wine, barley and timber have been lifted since Albanese’s election.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said ahead of the leaders’ meeting on Monday that he would raise the issue of China’s ban on Australian lobsters and exports from two beef processing plants.

“The simple fact that we have the first visit of a Chinese Prime Minister, the second most powerful person in China, (…) since 2017, is a huge opportunity to continue this dialogue, to continue to stabilize our relations and to resolve some of the outstanding issues,” Watt told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Australia shares US concerns about China’s global dominance in essential minerals and its control over supply chains in the renewable energy sector.

Citing Australia’s national interests, Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently ordered five China-linked companies to divest their shares in rare earth mining company Northern Minerals.

Watt said Chinese investment was not prohibited in the sector, but must meet national security criteria.

“One of the problems with critical minerals is that China absolutely dominates the global market,” Watt said.

“It is, we believe, in Australia’s and global interests to ensure a diverse supply, but we do not have… a blanket ban on Chinese investment in critical minerals, but any decision investment takes into account a number of factors, including national security requirements,” Watt added.

Albanese’s office said the prime minister would tell Li at a state lunch that the “points on which we disagree will not go away if we leave them unspoken.”

This appears to be a response to a statement by Li, released by the Chinese embassy in Canberra on Sunday, which said he recommended “putting aside differences” between the two countries in the interest of strengthening relations.

Albanese said he would discuss with Li recent clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea, which Australia says is putting Australian personnel at risk.

Relations deteriorated over Australian legislation that banned covert foreign interference in Australian politics, the exclusion of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from the rollout of the national 5G network due to security concerns, and the call of Australia to an independent investigation into the causes and responses to this situation. Covid-19 pandemic.