Tourexpi
China will include Australia in its visa waiver
program, Premier Li Qiang announced on Monday as he met Australian Prime
Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra.
Li is on a four-day visit to Australia, a first by
a Chinese premier since 2017.
"We agreed to provide each other with
reciprocal access to five-year multiple entry visas for tourism, business and
visiting family members so as to better facilitate personal exchanges. China
will also include Australia in its visa waiver program," Li told a joint
news conference after the annual leaders’ meeting with Albanese.
“We both stress the importance of maintaining
communication and coordination to jointly safeguard peace, stability and
prosperity in the region and beyond, in order to safeguard regional peace and
development which best serves the common interests of all countries,” he said.
Reaffirming commitment to comprehensive strategic
partnership with Canberra, Li said: “We also had a candid exchange of views of
some differences and disagreements and agreed to properly manage them."
He called on Canberra to support Hong Kong's
accession to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a trade agreement
among Asia-Pacific countries.
Albanese, for his part, said the two sides signed
agreements to “further our collaboration on climate action, education, culture,
and to enhance our free trade agreement."
In comments to reporters, he said the two sides had
“constructive” dialogue and agreed to deepen trade and investment relations
besides tackling climate change.
Acknowledging China as a regional and global power,
Albanese said Beijing had a role to play “in keeping our region, open and
stable and prosperous.”
“As nations with different histories, political
systems and values, we will cooperate with China where we can, disagree where
we must and engage in the national interest,” he added.
Emphasizing that “dialogue helps,” Albanese said:
“I certainly raised our issues in the Pacific, as well as other issues,
including human rights, including Dr Yang's case, as well as the Australians
who are on death row.”
“We, of course, in Australia oppose capital
punishment and I reiterated our position there,” the Australian prime minister
said in separate remarks.
Incarcerated Australian academic Yang Jun was given
a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court in February. He was arrested in
2019 over spying charges by Beijing.
Albanese said he raised the issue of “ensuring that
foreign interference wasn't acceptable in Australia's political system.”
He said the two sides also discussed “improving
military-to-military communication so as to avoid incidents.” “We'll have that
discussion about how that can be implemented in practice,” he added.
Australian prime minister said he also raised the
“issue of the ongoing impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine” with Li.
“With regard to the character of the discussion, on
some issues there's immediate agreement, on some issues there is not. We have
differences of opinion, but it's important that we be able to express those,
that we’re able to be constructive about it,” he said.
Image
Credit: © AA
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