Australia PM Anthony Albanese to be ‘direct’ with Xi Jinping over South China Sea in Beijing talks

Albanese will also hold talks with Premier Li Qiang when he travels to Beijing for three days from November 4, the first by an Australian leader since 2016.

Albanese, who took office last year, described the trip as an opportunity to “stabilise the relationship, where we cooperate wherever we can, we disagree where we have differences, and we’re open and honest about them and can talk those issues through”.

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Diplomatic exchanges have emerged from the deep freeze after Albanese’s Labor government took measures to patch up with the Asian giant. Since then, Beijing has scrapped restrictions on some Australian goods and resumed coal imports.

Bilateral trade between the countries stood at US$191 billion in 2022.

“It’s an important passageway for Australia’s trade up to Japan and Korea. It’s important that international laws be respected,” he told public broadcaster ABC’s Wide Bay radio.

China claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has rejected a 2016 international ruling on the territorial dispute in favour of the Philippines, which is among several claimants of the resource-rich waterway.

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“China knows that we’re in an alliance with the United States. They know that we’re a nation that stands up for human rights and for the rule of law, and they expect us to do that,” Albanese said.

Albanese recently proposed Australia – as a middle-power country – had a role to play in helping build “guard rails” between the American and Chinese militaries.