On March 20, 2024 local time, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had discussions with personages from Australian business and strategic communities and other sectors in Canberra.
Wang Yi expressed appreciation to people from all walks of life in Australia for their long-term upholding of the concept of friendship with China and actively promoting mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Australia.
Wang Yi said that China's development strengthens the world's forces for peace. As a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council and the second largest contributor to the UN membership fee, China has all along devoted its efforts to realizing peace, vigorously promoted talks for peace and made positive contributions to international and regional peace and stability. China's development enhances stability in the world. China has always advocated and acted upon multilateralism, stood for greater democracy in international relations, opposed unilateralism and bullying acts, and worked actively to make the international order more just and equitable. China's development brings more development opportunities. Following the mutually beneficial strategy of opening up, China will open its door wider to the rest of the world, continue to foster a business environment that is based on market principles, governed by law and up to international standards, actively participate in international cooperation on climate change response, and continue to provide the world with new opportunities through its new development.
Wang Yi said that China-Australia relations are comprehensive and multi-ranging, and the common interests of both sides far outweigh their differences, so the two countries should be partners rather than rivals. Now that China-Australia relations are on the track of improvement, the two countries should make great strides forward to build a more stable, mature and fruitful China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership for the great benefit of the two peoples and countries in the region. The participants are welcome to China to visit more places and see more things, share more of their real experiences of China-Australia exchanges, promote friendly exchanges between the two peoples, and expand mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, so as to contribute to the development of China-Australia relations.
The Australian participants said that Australia and China are important cooperative partners and the common interests of the two countries far outweigh their differences. The business and strategic communities as well as other sectors of Australia welcome the improvement of Australia-China relations, and support Australia and China in deepening dialogue and cooperation in economy and trade, finance, education, health, scientific research, law and other areas, properly handling differences, actively exploring new opportunities for cooperation in green development, scientific and technological innovation and others, and jointly addressing climate change and other global challenges, so as to promote the continuous development of Australia-China relations, and increase the certainty of the world with the stability of Australia-China relations.
The discussions were organized by the Australia China Business Council.