China, Australia To Promote Strategic Partnership: Xi

President Xi Jinping said he will work with Australia to promote a comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, state media reported on Wednesday, as Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong began her Beijing trip.

"I attach great importance to the development of China-Australia relations and am willing to work with the Australian side," Xi said in a report from broadcaster CCTV.

Taihe Institute senior fellow and chairman of Asia Narratives, Einar Tangen, explained to RTHK that Xi is "very clearly trying to reset the relationship".

"He wants peace, especially regionally. If you look carefully at how China has been handling things, they have been very active regionally.

“They’re very keen on getting South Korea and Japan to understand that they all have economic relations and are dependent on each other, especially in this age of global supply chain.”

Wong's visit raised hopes that her country will make progress on improving trade relations.

The trip is the first by an Australian foreign minister to the country in four years.

"It's very good to be here in China after quite a long time between visits," she said after landing in the capital.

Before leaving Australia on Tuesday, Wong cautioned that some of the thorny issues between the countries will take time to resolve.

"The mark of success is dialogue itself. We obviously have a lot of issues to work through, and dialogue is the prerequisite for working through them," she said.

Wong later exchanged congratulations on the fiftieth anniversary of bilateral ties with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Wang said the two sides should use the anniversary as an opportunity to take stock of the past and stay forward-looking.

China is Australia's largest trading partner, and Australia still provides many of the ores, metals and minerals that fuel the mainland's economic growth. But the two countries have sparred over political and human rights issues.

Tangen added that it is in both countries’ best interest to improve relations.

“At this juncture, it stands for both sides – because Australia has such [a] huge trade footprint with China – to get things back on track, now especially as Covid is receding.” (Additional reporting by Xinhua, Reuters and AP)

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