Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ‘would welcome’ China talks

Albanese signals he is open to high-level talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia in November

PM was speaking after China’s ambassador said he would ‘love’ to see the Australian leader meet President Xi Jinping

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo: AP

Published: 10:43am, 7 Sep 2022Updated: 6:02pm, 7 Sep 2022

China and Australia could hold top-level talks for the first time since 2017, with senior figures from both countries this week signalling a willingness to break the years-long impasse.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday that he would “welcome” such a meeting, when asked about the potential for talks on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in November in Indonesia.

“I’m open to dialogue with anyone at any time, particularly with leaders of other nations,” he told reporters.

The prime minister’s comments came after China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, told ABC on Tuesday that he would “love” to see Chinese President Xi Jinping meet Albanese.

Xi last met an Australian prime minister in 2017, when he held private talks with centrist Malcolm Turnbull on the G20 sidelines in Hamburg.

While China remains Australia’s largest trading partner, relations between the two countries have soured over the past five years – and all but collapsed after Canberra called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

Beijing has since introduced punitive sanctions on a string of Australian imports and top-level contacts have been frozen.