Negotiations are advancing for Australia to host China’s foreign minister for extraordinary government conversations, according to Foreign Minister Penny Wong. “Officials are dealing with when this might work,” Ms Wong said on Sunday in an interview with ABC News. “We would estimate that dialogue to happen in Australia at an accurate time.”
Conversations between Canberra and Beijing have resumed and rapports have refined since the election of a Labor government in May 2022. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell visited China in May, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is anticipated to travel to China at an undecided date. China thew away import taxes on Australian barley earlier in August, in the last sign of refining connections. Beijing enforced the charges in May 2020, putting allegations on Australian exporters of dumping on the Chinese market.
The move happened as multilateral connections fractured when then Prime Minister Scott Morrison looked up to an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Beijing also curbed imports of other Australian goods. Even as rapports refined, the two nations encounter a range of problems. Ms Wong said the Australian government “deals with huge concerns” in rapport to two Australian citizens detained in China, journalist Cheng Lei and writer Yang Hengjun.