Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his much-anticipated trip to China is about opening up engagement with the world power but denies he‘ll be there as a ’go-between' for America.
But the prime minister is heeding the warning of President Joe Biden, who is imploring Australia not to fully trust Beijing.
Mr. Albanese will head to China on Saturday, in what will be the first time an Australian leader has visited the country since 2016.
Asked about President Biden’s repeated warnings to be wary of Beijing during their time together in Washington this week, the prime minister said it was important Australia is able to add “guardrails” to its relationship with Beijing.
“We have different political systems and different values ... we‘ll co-operate where we can, we will disagree where we must and we’ll engage in our national interests, and that’s something that President Biden also supports,” he told ABC TV.
“My concern with the relationship between the U.S. and China is there has been good engagement at the diplomatic level, at a senior ministerial level equivalent ... but military-to-military, there’s still a lack of engagement.”
Australia’s thawing relationship with China is about acting in sovereign interests, the prime minister said, rather than delivering a message from America.
“We’ve seen major breakthroughs when it comes to removing some of the impediments that have been there for trade,” he said.
“The wine decision alone will be worth around about $1.2 billion to Australia, barley was worth $900 million to Australia, we’ve had decisions on timber, on hay and on other products.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton agreed with Mr. Albanese’s assessment and said he wanted to see the trading relationship with China grow, agreeing with the decision to travel to Beijing.
But he said Mr. Albanese would also need to “deliver some tough messages.”
“Mike Burgess, the head of ASIO, called this out when he was in Washington ... there is an industrial scale attempt to steal intellectual property and cyber attacks on our system [from China],” he told Sky News.
“We have to be realistic about the situation and the relationship. There are multi-faceted aspects to it that will need to be addressed.”
