lørdag 3. august 2019

China's top diplomat says ties with Australia 'unsatisfactory' after meeting with Payne


The progress of repairing China-Australia ties, strained over Canberra’s concerns about Chinese influence in its domestic affairs, has been “unsatisfactory”, said China’s top diplomat after meeting his Australian counterpart.

“During our diplomatic and strategic dialogue in Beijing last November, we agreed to calibrate and relaunch China-Australia relations, but the process of improving our ties has not been satisfactory,” said state councillor Wang Yi after the Bangkok meeting on the sidelines of a regional security forum. Wang said he hoped China’s relations with Australia could be back on track as soon as possible, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

Both countries have no historical grievances and fundamental conflicts of interests and their interests are highly complementary, Wang said.