As the two nations announced a trade dispute resolution on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia wants exporters to diversify markets and grow less reliant on China because it cannot separate economic and geopolitical partnerships.
On Tuesday, Australia suspended a WTO action, and China accelerated a tariff review on Australian exports to settle their barley dispute.
Wong told Sky News that diversifying export markets is crucial to national resilience.
“And the government will support it because we want varied export markets.”
China, Australia’s largest trade partner, lifted restrictions on various Australian commodity exports in 2020 due to a diplomatic conflict.
“We’re not going back to where we were 15 years ago,” Wong told journalists.
“We want a more solid relationship with China, but we realize we can’t continue to divide our economic and strategic relationship,” she told Nine’s, Today Show.
She noted that as a “big power in the globe,” China and Australia would have different objectives.
Wong labeled China’s recent military drills surrounding Taiwan “destabilizing” and recommended de-escalation.
“Australia’s stance is, very clearly, no unilateral alteration to the status quo,” she told Sky News in the interview.
On Wednesday, Chinese executive vice minister of foreign affairs Ma Zhaoxu and Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Jan Adams met in Canberra.
“The conversations addressed a range of bilateral and international themes, including commerce, consular, human rights, geopolitical rivalry, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the department stated.
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