Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Australia’s foreign minister will visit China on Tuesday, which is seen as a sign of renewed ties between the two countries.
According to a news agency, this will be the first visit by the country’s foreign minister in four years. Australia has said that Penny Wong will visit Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and meet Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Xi.
The country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the visit and said the country wants a stable relationship with the country. We will cooperate as much as possible and disagree where necessary. The Australian foreign minister last visited Beijing in 2018 after the two countries’ “excellent” relations soured.
Differences between the two countries have intensified over political and moral issues, particularly the push for Chinese influence overseas and widespread human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet. China’s Communist leaders were angered by Australia’s decision to ban Huawei, an approved firm, from operating the G5 network and calls for an investigation into the spread of Covid-19.
China quietly imposed sanctions on goods from Australia
In response, China quietly imposed sanctions on a range of Australian goods and suspended high-level contacts. Cold relations ended when the Australian prime minister met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali in November. However, economic sanctions remain in place, and Australia has clarified that it wants to end them. China is Australia’s largest trading partner, and Australia still supplies many of the metals and minerals essential to China’s remarkable economic growth.
