FM Wang Yi heads to Australia, New Zealand
Foreign Minister Wang Yi will next week visit Australia and New Zealand, Beijing said on Thursday, with the diplomatic blitz expected to focus on boosting trade. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the top diplomat had accepted the invitations of his counterparts from both countries. Wang's visit to Australia, his first as foreign minister since 2017, comes as the two countries began to resolve simmering trade disputes despite recent sparring over geopolitical tensions.  "I think it is a good thing that Wang Yi is visiting," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters, citing "significant progress" in removing trade impediments. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said the foreign minister will also be visiting Wellington. "We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand's most important and complex." Wang is scheduled to hold "strategic dialogue" talks with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra on March 20. Australia's trade relations with China have improved since Albanese's centre-left Labor Party won power in 2022, adopting a less confrontational tone than the previous conservative government. China had imposed tariffs and trade barriers on key Australian exports in 2020 after Canberra barred Huawei from 5G contracts and called for a probe into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Agencies)