Australia must use a meeting with China’s second in command to raise disputes over the South China Sea during the ASEAN summit in Laos, a security expert says.
The prime minister arrived in the capital Vientiane late on Wednesday night, ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia Summits.
Anthony Albanese is expected to meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday afternoon, as well as leaders from Canada and New Zealand.
Regional security, trade bans on Australian exports imposed by Beijing and the South China Sea will be the focus of the talks.
Asked about his message for the Chinese premier, Mr Albanese said the government would remain consistent.
“We’ll co-operate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll have some direct discussions about some of the disagreements that are there, but also that it is in our interest to communicate with China, which is our largest trading partner,” he said.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Euan Graham said raising issues of security was in the “must” category for the prime minister.
“It’s still the best opportunity he’s got to make sure that Australia is not going to signal its silence on on any of the big strategic issues, even if that causes some disagreement,” he said.
Dr Graham said Beijing’s refusal to completely remove trade sanctions demonstrated its strategy in using economic coercion to maintain leverage in negotiations.
“It’s very skilful at playing that game,” he said.
“My advice for the government would be to not to kid itself that China has changed its ways or its strategic settings or intentions.
“There has been an improvement in relations. I think that’s indisputable, but it has not really changed the geopolitical settings which remain ominous.”
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