15-16 November 2022, Bali, Indonesia
During the Conservative party’s rule in Australia, Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia (2018-2022) asked for an enquiry into China’s role in the spread of Covid-19. Thereupon China imposed sanctions on Australia, stopping the import of goods, for which China was the largest importer. This had created difficulties for many Australians.
On 23rd May 2022, Anthony Albanese, took over as the Prime Minister of Australia. His party has been always a great supporter of developing good relations with China. Therefore he was keen to meet the Chinese President at Bali.
China’s envoy to Australia said in June 2002 that the ongoing detention of Australian citizens Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun “should not be a problem” affecting the overall state of bilateral ties between Canberra and Beijing. (Dr Yang, a writer and pro-democracy advocate, was detained in January 2019 at Guangzhou airport. Ms Cheng, a TV journalist whose young children remain in Australia, was detained in August 2020)
At the meeting of 15th November, Xi Jinping and Anthony Albanese met in a cordial environment. After the meeting, The statement from the office of the Prime Minister f Australia said, “China is a major power with global interests and it was valuable to exchange views on challenges to international peace and security, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” He promised to remain engaged with China.
16 November 2022: Meeting of Narendra Modi with Anthony Albanese:
At the meeting, both the Leaders expressed satisfaction at the excellent state of relations between the two countries under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the high-level interactions taking place on a regular basis between India and Australia. They reviewed the progress made in deepening cooperation across a diverse range of sectors, including defence, trade, education, clean energy and people-to-people ties. Institutional partnership in the field of education, especially in higher education, vocational education, training and capacity building was discussed in detail.
