Keeping third party at bay, Albanese can create a truly win-win situation: China Daily editorial

The incumbent Australian administration has shown more political wisdom and a better understanding of relations with Beijing compared with the previous administration. As a result, there are high expectations from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's upcoming visit to China, the first by an Australian prime minister in seven years — that he will seize the opportunity to further improve bilateral ties.

A less biased and more objective stance is all that the Albanese administration needs to gauge the importance of the mutually beneficial relationship between China and Australia.

Albanese's visit to China indicates the efforts made in the past months to improve bilateral ties have paid off, creating the right atmosphere for the two countries to put their relations back onto the right track.

His visit, scheduled from Nov 4 to 7, was confirmed as the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that Beijing had reached an agreement with Canberra on a "proper resolution" of trade disputes over wine and wind towers under the World Trade Organization's framework. Under the agreement, China will review its tariffs on Australian wine in the next five months while Australia will suspend its WTO dispute over China's move. Judging by the improvement in bilateral ties, China may allow the import of Australian wine by later lifting the tariffs.

To some extent, Australian wine has served as a barometer of the ups and downs in bilateral ties in recent years. When bilateral ties deteriorated last year, Australian wine was among the first group of Australian-made products to be slapped with extra tariffs in November 2022.

Hopefully, the dispute will soon become history, with the two sides' efforts, especially since Albanese took office last May, to resolve disputes paying fruits. It proves once again that as long as the two sides look at the larger picture of bilateral ties and meet each other halfway, any obstacle can be removed on the road to mutually beneficial cooperation.

According to data from the Australian side, bilateral trade was worth A$113 million ($71 million) in the second year of the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1973. That figure has since skyrocketed to $220 billion in 2022, according to China's official data.

Also, Chinese mainland students accounted for 25 percent, ranking first, of all international students in Australia in 2022. And before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China was Australia's "largest and most valuable" inbound tourism market.

Fruitful cooperation and mutual benefit are the essence of bilateral relations, including trade relations. That's why China sees the development of other countries as new opportunities. Australia, too, needs to view China's development as an opportunity, not a threat, and promote bilateral ties independently, free from third-party influence or interference.