The Guardian - China-China and Australia agree to new multi-entry visa as Albanese touts improved relationship after thaw
November 7, 2023 3 min 552 words
中国和澳大利亚同意创建新的多次入境签证，这一举措被澳大利亚总理阿尔巴尼斯视为关系改善的体现。此次访问是自2016年以来澳大利亚总理首次访华，标志着两国之间的外交关系出现了全面重置。新的多次入境签证将促进两国人民之间的交流和更紧密的联系，这是一项积极的举措。 这一外交重置有望结束自2020年澳大利亚总理莫里森呼吁对Covid-19起源进行独立调查后升级为有害贸易战的外交摩擦。澳大利亚和中国将恢复年度领导人会晤，包括澳大利亚总理和中华人民共和国总理之间的会晤，外交部长对话以及经济对话。 阿尔巴尼斯的访问标志着中澳外交关系的积极发展，他表示，双方会在国家利益的基础上进行合作，有分歧时将进行讨论。然而，需要保持警惕，因为中澳关系仍然面临挑战，包括网络间谍活动和南中国海的军事威胁。此外，中国与俄罗斯之间的友谊也需要加以关注。 这一外交重置是一个积极的信号，但需要确保澳大利亚在与中国打交道时保持坚定的原则，同时继续在双边关系中解决尚未解决的问题。中澳两国的合作和对话是地区和国际稳定的关键，希望两国能够继续朝着合作和友好关系的方向前进。
Anthony Albanese is en route to the Pacific Islands Forum after executing a comprehensive diplomatic reset with China which includes an agreement to create a new multi-entry visa to facilitate exchanges and closer links between people.
The new visa for visitors and business people was agreed at the conclusion of the Australian prime minister’s meetings with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the premier, Li Qiang, in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Monday and Tuesday.
In a joint statement released as Albanese left the country, the governments of Australia and China welcomed “the contribution of people-to-people exchanges to the bilateral relationship, including the increasing exchanges of students, tourists and business people” as well as the resumption of leader-level dialogues suspended for several years.
Drawing a line over a diplomatic fracture that escalated into a damaging trade war after Scott Morrison in 2020 called for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, Australia and China will resume an annual leaders meeting between the prime minister and the premier of the People’s Republic, a foreign ministers dialogue and an economic dialogue.
Albanese’s visit to China began at the weekend with a trade-focused visit to the country’s commercial capital, Shanghai. He then met the leadership in Beijing.
Albanese said the trip – the first by an Australian prime minister since 2016, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam establishing diplomatic relations with the communist country – marked a point where the “relationship moved forward, where dialogue occurred in a way that was respectful, where differences were able to be discussed in a way that didn’t define the whole relationship”.
“I’ve said consistently that we’ll cooperate where we can with China, we’ll disagree where we must, but we will engage in our national interest,” Australia’s prime minister told travelling reporters in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
“I think people will look at this visit as well and see this as a culmination of 18 months of hard work by the foreign minister and by other members of the government, as well as members of the Chinese government, as one where our approach has been to be patient, deliberate and calibrated in moving the relationship forward.”
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The shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, welcomed the diplomatic thaw. But he said the Albanese government needed to “remain clear-eyed about the challenges that still exist with China; that the strategic challenges and environment have not changed”.
Birmingham said China engaged in cyber-espionage and launched “aggressive military tactics against the Philippines in the South China Sea”. He also noted Xi had recently hosted Vladimir Putin in the Chinese capital “as yet a further extension of their friendship without boundaries or limits”.
“So these are all reminders of why real caution is needed, as well as the many unresolved aspects of the bilateral tensions in the relationship,” Birmingham said on Tuesday.