Chinese Premier Li Qiang Photo: cnsphoto

 


Premier Li Qiang will pay official visits to New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia from June 13 to 20, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced Tuesday. Experts said the visits will focus on enhancing communications and friendship and exploring new potential for cooperation. 

During his visit to New Zealand, Premier Li will have meetings and talks with Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for in-depth exchange of views on China-New Zealand relationship and international and regional issues of mutual interest, according to Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China and New Zealand are each other's important cooperation partners. China hopes that through this visit, the two countries will strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust, deepen cooperation, cement friendship and promote sound and steady growth of China-New Zealand relationship for more benefits of the two peoples, Lin stated. 

This visit to New Zealand, coming at a time when the country has undergone a change in government last year, serves to renew the friendship between the two sides. Building on the past well-established achievements of the two countries, there are heightened expectations to strengthen the partnership and explore new potential for cooperation, Chen Hong, director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

On Li's visit to Australia, China and Australia are both important countries in the Asia-Pacific with high economic complementarity and a promising future for cooperation, Lin said, adding that enhancing and maintaining the sound growth of bilateral ties meets the common aspiration of both peoples.

Lin expressed China's expectation toward Premier's visit to Australia, saying that China stands ready to work with Australia through this visit to strengthen high-level exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and trust, deepen practical cooperation, and jointly build a more mature, stable and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Australia.

"Australia continues to pursue a stable and direct relationship with China. This visit is an opportunity to engage directly on key issues for both our nations," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on X.

Chen told the Global Times that the Chinese Premier's visit to Australia symbolizes China-Australia ties have returned to the normal track after frosty bilateral relations of the past years under the former administration of Scott Morrison.

The current Australian government has demonstrated willingness to improve bilateral relations and has made efforts to bring ties back to the right track, which can be seen from the meetings between the leaders of both nations in Bali, Indonesia in 2022 and Prime Minister Albanese's visit to China in 2023, Chen said. 

During his visit to Australia, Premier Li will co-chair the ninth China-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting with Prime Minister Albanese and engage extensively with people from various walks of life to exchange views on China-Australia relations and international and regional issues of mutual interest. The two prime ministers will also jointly attend the China-Australia CEO Roundtable Meeting. 

We have every reason to expect that this visit would initiate a promising prospect for future China-Australia relationship in coming years, Chen noted. "A relationship that develops based on mutual trust and respect will ultimately achieve mutual benefits."

During the visit, both sides should reach a crucial consensus that the China-Australia relationship must not regress, and should strive for enduring cooperation with a focus on the economy and trade, experts noted. 

With large volume of Australia's trade dependent on China, and tens of thousands of Chinese international students and tourists in Australia, the resumption of greater economic engagement is likely to be a major theme of this visit, Wang Huiyao, founder and president of the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times. 

Experts said on the basis of consolidating the traditional economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, the two sides can further explore new areas of cooperation, for example, clean energy and coping with climate change is one of the areas with great potential.

At Tuesday's press briefing, the spokesperson also introduced Premier Li's visit to Malaysia. Lin said that China and Malaysia are neighbors across the sea with a time-honored friendship. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations half a century ago, bilateral ties have enjoyed a sound momentum of growth, with deepening strategic mutual trust, fruitful high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and increasingly closer cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

China looks forward to working with Malaysia through this visit to carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen and expand cooperation in various areas, deepen and solidify the China-Malaysia community with a shared future, and jointly open up the next, more splendid 50 years of bilateral relations, Lin said.