Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Australia on Saturday.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Chinese Premier Li Qiang will visit Australia later this week, officials announced Tuesday, in a further sign that tense bilateral relations are improving.
Li’s visit will run from Saturday to Tuesday and will be the first time a Chinese premier has visited Australia since 2017, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
According to an Australian government statement, Prime Minister Albanese and Prime Minister Lee will hold their annual summit at Parliament House in the Australian capital, Canberra, during their visit.
Premier Li Keqiang, the second most powerful member of China’s leadership, is also scheduled to visit the Australian cities of Adelaide and Perth.
Li’s visit follows Albanese’s visit to Beijing in November last year, in which the two leaders agreed to resume key bilateral dialogue and further advance several areas of cooperation.
After Australia’s previous government called for an international investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, China imposed a series of formal and informal trade barriers, costing Australian exporters up to A$20 billion ($13 billion) a year.
Since the Albanese government was elected in 2022, most of those barriers have been removed.
“Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia is an important opportunity to address directly issues of importance to both our countries,” Albanese said in a statement.
“Australia continues to pursue a stable and direct relationship with China, with dialogue at its core,” Mr Albanese added.
