SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is set to attend a series of overseas summits including that of the G20 leaders, said on Wednesday that if a meeting was arranged with China’s President Xi Jinping it would be a positive thing.
Xi is set to attend the G20 summit in Bali, an adviser to the Indonesian president has previously said, but it is unclear if he will be at the other meetings in the region that Albanese will attend – the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.
“I’ve made it very clear that dialogue is a good thing, and if a meeting is arranged with Xi, then that would be a positive thing,” Albanese told a news conference in Canberra.
“We’re organizing a range of meetings but they haven’t been finalized,” he added.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told his Australian counterpart Penny Wong during a call on Tuesday that the countries should address each others’ legitimate concerns and make contributions to address global challenges.
Both countries should work to rebuild trust and put their relationship back on the right track, a statement from China’s foreign ministry quoted Wang as saying.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Chris Reese and Himani Sarkar)
