Login
iscover
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for a constructive relationship with the People’s Republic of China, after PRC ambassador Xiao Qian diverted blame for the November naval incident between the two countries.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
A Japanese warship was likely responsible for the naval incident which injured Royal Australian Navy divers on 14 November last year, not the People’s Liberation Army Navy, according to ambassador Xiao during a two-hour press briefing inside the Chinese embassy this week.
The ambassador disputed claims that the divers, untangling fishing nets from the propellor of Anzac Class frigate HMAS Toowoomba, sustained minor injuries after being exposed to sonar pulses from the hull-mounted sonar of PLA-N destroyer (DDG-139, Ningbo) operating inside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
“At that moment, there was a third country boat nearby. Whether or not there was sonar from the other side, the other party, we’re not sure. Perhaps our Australian colleagues can find out what’s the truth,” ambassador Xiao said, according to ABC news reports from the event.
“Should they (the PLA) have initiated the sonar from the Chinese ship against the divers, it would cause immediate fatality, at least major casualty to the divers.”
Despite the international incident, ambassador Xiao called for closer military ties between the PLA and Australian Defence Force.
“It’s so important to the mutual trust and confidence in our two countries … if you have trust between two militaries, you do not have to build trust. I’d like to see more interactions [and] engagement between our defence people,” he said.
Responding to the ambassador’s comments while attending a doorstop interview in Hobart, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he has previously made strong representations to China about the incident in November and stands by those representations.
“I stand by the comments that we’ve made at the time. We made strong representations to China about this incident and we stand by the representations that we made,” he said during the interview on 17 January.
“My government’s position is that we’ll cooperate where we can, we will disagree where we must, and we will engage in our national interests and we won’t allow differences which are there to define our relationship.”
Speaking on the commercial trading relations between the two countries, Prime Minister Albanese said he wants to foster a constructive relationship with China.
“I want a constructive relationship. I note that there is significant benefit, for example, for the Tasmanian wine industry, for the tariffs that we hope to be removed from wine into China in March, after the review that’s taking place,” he said.
“We’re already seeing a range of products being exported to China. The value of the impediments that were there in tradeable goods was in the order of $20 billion annually. We’re seeing Chinese tourists return to Australia. We’re seeing the education sector benefit. We want to see the wonderful products that we have, including seafood and wine, exported from Tasmania. That’s in Australia’s interests, but it’s also in China’s interests because the products that we have here are damn good.
“We produce some of the best products in the world and we want the world to enjoy them. And we want the jobs to be expanded by the world enjoying them.”
