Australia’s and China’s leaders will meet for the first time in six years.
High-level communication between the two nations was discontinued as a result of disagreements over trade, human rights, and foreign meddling.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese has said he hopes his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is constructive.
“Dialogue is always a good thing,” he said.
“We enter this discussion with goodwill… [and] no preconditions.”
But Jennifer Hsu, a Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Australia, has warned the meeting is unlikely to bring any real progress.
While the talks are a significant step towards stabilising the relationship and are “a small victory” to be celebrated, too many points of conflict remain, Hsu told the BBC.
And many of them are rooted in “fundamental” differences between the countries, like system of government or values, she adds.
“It would be wrong for us to have great anticipation of this meeting resolving all those issues that have percolated over the last six years,” Hsu said.
Albanese’s government – elected in May – has toned down Australia’s rhetoric towards China, but has repeatedly said its policy approach is no different to that of the previous government.
We looked at whether the two countries are likely to patch things up earlier this year.
Source: BBC