SINGAPORE: Australia’s fraught connection with China might have dominated headlines recently but Canberra’s top diplomat on Wednesday (Jul 6) was keen to tension that ties with the wider Asia area were just as, if not, more crucial.
“We are open to engagement however the bilateral relationship with China is not the only thing which is important to all of us, ” Australian International Minister Penny Wong said in an interview with CNA.
“What is most important to us may be the region in which we live, and which is why I’m here once again in Southeast Asia, and why we all spend so much period since we were chosen, engaging with partners here. ”
Ms Wong is within Singapore as part of the official tour of Southeast Asia – the girl first to the area as foreign ressortchef (umgangssprachlich). She recently stopped at Vietnam and Malaysia, where she produced a pit-stop in her hometown of Kota Kinabalu.
The appointment of the Malaysia-born Australian of Hakka-Chinese descent because the country’s top diplomat has been widely construed as a sign that will Australia’s new Work Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is pivoting the country’s international policy back to Asian countries.
China and taiwan, which is Australia’s largest trading partner, is usually expected to be a crucial focus in this revolves.
“I think it would be in our mutual interest regarding there to be greater stability in the connection, ” stressed Microsoft Wong.
“I think if you focus on, are you around or against all of us, you add to the dangers associated with the more competing environment in which we live and we understand that we live in a time of strategic competition but what we have to do together is to avert that escalating. inch
Read more on: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/australia-asean-china-foreign-minister-penny-wong-2792471