‘Patient, deliberate, calibrated': Albanese walks trade-security tightrope in China
Speaking after a green steel roundtable on Monday, designed to bolster Australia's crucial $100 billion iron ore exports to China, mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest warned that an overemphasis on security risks was hurting trade.
The prime minister used his remarks after the roundtable, which included industry leaders from both nations, to paint Australia as a stable, open trading nation against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's stop-start trade wars.
'I think that Australia's support for free and fair trade does provide potential opportunities for Australia in this region as well, not just with China, but with ASEAN nations,' Albanese said.
Trade will be central to Albanese's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and premier Li – who famously referred to Albanese as a 'handsome boy' in 2023 – on Tuesday.
For the first time in almost a decade, Albanese and a delegation of business leaders, including Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake and BHP Australia president Geraldine Slattery, will meet with Chinese counterparts in Beijing.
Albanese will use the CEO meeting to talk up the removal of Chinese trade strikes on goods like coal, barley, wine and rock lobster that were imposed after the Morrison government criticised China's handling of COVID-19 and its assertive foreign policy.
'Of course [more open trade] has also benefited China,' Albanese will say, according to draft notes of his speech provided to this masthead.
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