China Premier Li Qiang made a low-key start on Sunday to a four-day trip to Australia with visits to a South Australian winery and Adelaide Zoo, where he announced Beijing would provide two new pandas after the current pair go home later this year.
Li, China’s second-highest ranked official and the first Chinese premier to visit Australia in seven years, is due to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday. He arrived in the South Australia state capital late on Saturday, saying bilateral relations were “back on track.”
China, Australia’s largest trade partner, imposed restrictions on a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral exports in 2020 during a diplomatic dispute that has now largely eased.
On Sunday, Li’s first official stop was to visit a pair of pandas on loan from China to Adelaide’s zoo, where Australian Broadcasting Corp. television showed crowds gathered, some waving Chinese flags, while others held signs that read “No more panda propaganda.”
At the zoo, Li announced the pandas would return to China in November and the zoo would get to select two new giant pandas, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.
The pandas had “become envoys of friendship between China and Australia, and a symbol of the profound friendship between the two peoples,” Li said, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy.
“China is ready to continue with the cooperative research with Australia on the conservation of giant pandas, and hopes that Australia will continue to be an amicable home for giant pandas,” Li added.
The pandas, Fu Ni and Wang Wang, have been at the zoo since 2009 but have not successfully bred, the ABC reported.
Li later attended an event with South Australia wine exporters, who until recently have been shut out of the Chinese market in a dispute that suspended A$20 billion ($13 billion) in Australian agriculture and mineral exports last year.
Speaking at the winery in the Adelaide suburb of Magill, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the venue was chosen “because of course one of the impediments that has been removed is the export of Australian wine and we welcome that.”
Earlier on Sunday, Wong said Li’s visit was “really important” in showing stabilized ties between the two major trading partners.
“It comes after two years of very deliberate, very patient work by this government to bring about a stabilization of the relationship,” Wong told the ABC.
On the pandas, Wong, who lives in Adelaide, said the animals “have been a great part of the lives of many Adelaide families.”
On Monday, Li will visit the capital Canberra for a meeting with Albanese.
During the talks, the prime minister is expected to bring up the case of Australian writer Yang Hengjun who was given a suspended death sentence on espionage charges in February, as well as an incident last month where a Chinese military jet dropped flares near an Australian defense helicopter.
Li’s final stop on Tuesday will be in resource-rich mining state Western Australia. Australia is the biggest supplier of iron ore to China, which has been an investor in Australian mining projects, though some recent Chinese investment in critical minerals has been blocked by Australia on national interest grounds.
Li arrived from New Zealand, where he highlighted Chinese demand for its agricultural products.
Canberra and Wellington are seeking to balance trade with regional security concerns over China’s ambitions in the Pacific Islands and on issues including human rights the contested South China Sea.
China Premier Li starts Australia trip with Adelaide panda announcement, winery visit
https://arab.news/mrr8x
China Premier Li starts Australia trip with Adelaide panda announcement, winery visit
- Li Qiang, China’s second-highest ranked official and the first Chinese premier to visit Australia in seven years
- The pandas at Adelaide’s zoo would return to China in November and it would get to select two new giant pandas
‘Peace and stability are ultimate prerequisites for growth and prosperity,’ Indonesia’s president tells WEF
- While world faces tightening financial conditions, trade tensions, political uncertainty, ‘Indonesia continues to grow,’ says Prabowo Subianto
- He says country does not fear economic integration
BEIRUT: History teaches us that “peace and stability are our most valuable assets” and the “ultimate prerequisites for growth and prosperity” as there will be no prosperity without peace, Indonesia’s president said on Thursday.
Prabowo Subianto, in his special address before the World Economic Forum, said: “We gather here in Davos at a time of great uncertainty; a time when wars continue to break out … a time when trust between nations, between institutions, between peoples is fragile.”
According to Subianto, the International Monetary Fund recently described Indonesia as “a global bright spot with strong economic growth amid a challenging external environment.”
While the world faced tightening financial conditions, trade tensions and political uncertainty, “Indonesia continues to grow,” Subianto said, adding that his country’s economy had grown by more than 5 percent every year over the last decade.
“I am confident that this year our growth will be higher,” he said, noting that inflation remained at about 2 percent, while the government deficit had been kept below 3 percent of gross domestic product.
He said that international institutions did not praise Indonesia because of unfounded optimism, but because of evidence. “They recognized that Indonesia’s economy is resilient,” he said, emphasizing that “peace and stability in Indonesia over the years” did not happen by chance.
He added that his country had always chosen unity over fragmentation, and friendship and collaboration over confrontation. He stressed “friendship over enmity.”
Subianto explained that his country had never defaulted on paying its debts and “succeeding regimes always pay the debts of the preceding regime.”
Regarding the economy, the Indonesian president said his country did not fear economic integration, adding: “We have been a trading nation for hundreds of years, and we now conclude trade agreements, not because it is fashionable but we consider it necessary.
“We believe in the concept of win-win. Last year we signed free trade agreements and comprehensive economic partnership agreements with Europe, the EU, Canada (and) Peru, and I have just visited the UK to sign our new strategic partnership and also an economic growth agreement.” He hopes that by 2027 Indonesia has in place a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with the UK.
Its policy is part of the country’s strategy to deepen productivity, reduce barriers and unlock private sector growth for Indonesia, ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the Global South, he said.
Subianto added in a session chaired by Borge Brende, WEF’s president and CEO: “We believe that trade integration, when done fairly, is not a threat to sovereignty. We believe trade is a tool for prosperity.
“Indonesia has a clear vision, as we are determined to become a modern country integrated with the global economy (while) providing (a) good quality of life for its citizens, living free of poverty and hunger.”
He further highlighted the importance of political and economic stability as a prerequisite for investments.
Toward the end of his address, the Indonesian president reiterated that “peace and stability is a long and arduous program.”
He added: “Indonesia chooses peace versus chaos. We want to be a friend to all, and an enemy to none. We want to be a good neighbor and a good, responsible citizen of the world, protecting the environment and protecting nature. We must not destroy nature, and live with it.
“Let us build the world we want to live in together. Let us continue the journey to improve the quality of life for all to live in peace, freedom, friendship, tolerance, coexistence, and (with) cooperation for all races, ethnicities, and religions.
“Let us continue our pursuit of justice for all, and security and freedom for all.”
