Opening remarks Australia China bilateral meeting

LI QIANG, PREMIER OF CHINA: Prime Minister Albanese, it gives me great pleasure to meet you again. As I also say, I feel very warm to meet an old friend, and I want to thank Mr Prime Minister, and the Australian side for the warm hospitality and thoughtful arrangement during my visit to Australia in June. That visit was a great success, and also attracted a lot of attention in both China and Australia. And I can feel clearly, that people of both countries are generally supportive of the improvement of China-Australia relations, and it also gives me greater confidence in sustaining our cooperation and achieving winning outcomes at a higher level. It is gratifying to know that over the past weeks and months, China-Australia relations are on the whole, continue to move forward in a positive direction. Our institutional dialogues are being held, and our practical cooperation is advancing across the board. Our sub national and people to people exchanges are getting more vibrant. This shows that, as long as two sides can work toward the same goal, China-Australia relations will embrace a brighter future, to understand we need to work with Australia, to foster a more mature, stable and productive Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to deliver greater benefits to either peoples and make a greater contribution to peace and stability and development of the region and the world as a whole. I look forward to having an exchange of ideas with you, Mr Prime Minister on issues of mutual interest. Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, thank you very much, Premier Li, and it's a pleasure to meet you here in Vientiane after hosting you for our Annual Leaders' Dialogue in Australia in June. I look forward to returning to China next year to continue our Annual Leaders DiaIogue. I valued our productive discussions during your visit, and you were very welcome. As we meet today, this is our fifth engagement now, our Australian men's team, the Socceroos, will play China's national team in a World Cup qualifying game in Adelaide later today, and we certainly wish both teams the best of luck. Since our constructive meetings in June, our governments have continued to progress the outcomes we agreed, including restarting regular exchanges between our ministers. And I'm pleased that our ministers responsible for climate change and the environment met in Sydney in August for an annual Australia-China ministerial dialogue of climate change and our foreign ministers recently met in New York. It's also very good that the Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers visited Beijing, the first visit in seven years for the Strategic Economic Dialogue, restoring a key pillar of our bilateral relationship. And as we discuss our parliamentary delegation from the Australian Parliament, led by the President of the Senate, will visit China next week, a bipartisan delegation that is very good. As I've said many times, dialogue is crucial, and peace and stability take work. We recognise a more stable economic relationship between Australia and China is a good thing for workers, for businesses, for investors on both sides and for our countries more broadly. Premier Li, Australia has a vision of a peaceful, stable and prosperous world where sovereignty is respected and countries abide by international law. It's important that we have these frank exchanges of views on the issues that matter to us, to build deeper awareness of our respective interests. Premier, I look forward to another direct and productive discussion with you today, and I thank you for hosting us.