Sydney - Middle East Times Int’l: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will welcome the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Li Qiang, to Australia as a Guest of Government from Saturday 15 June to Tuesday 18 June 2024.

This will be the first visit to Australia by a Chinese Premier since 2017. 

Prime Minister Albanese and Premier Li will hold the Annual Leaders’ Meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, where they will exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues.

Premier Li will also travel to Adelaide and Perth. The leaders will engage with Australian and Chinese business leaders at the seventh Australia-China CEO Roundtable. This will make a valuable contribution to strengthening relationships between business leaders in China and Australia.

During the visit, the leaders will also attend a community event to acknowledge the deep contribution of the more than one million members of the Chinese-Australian community to our nation’s multicultural success story.

Premier Li’s visit to Australia follows Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to Beijing in November last year, where leaders agreed to resume key bilateral dialogues and to further a number of areas of cooperation.

Quotes attributable to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: 

“Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia is an important opportunity to engage directly on key issues for both our nations.

“China is Australia’s largest trading partner and our economic relationship continues to bring substantial benefits to both our countries. 

“Welcoming the Chinese Premier to our shores is an opportunity for Australia to advance our interests by demonstrating our national values, our people’s qualities and our economy’s strengths.  

“Australia continues to pursue a stable and direct relationship with China, with dialogue at its core. 

“We will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest.”