Anthony Albanese heads to ASEAN summit, meeting with China's premier on the agenda

Anthony Albanese has arrived in Laos, where he will today meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit.

Transcript

00:00This will be the fifth time the Prime Minister has met with Premier Li, and the regularity

00:05of these meetings has been pointed to as a sign of stability in the Australia-China relationship.

00:11But despite some progress in areas like trade, there are still key points of concern that

00:15remain to be discussed.

00:17China's recent test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific raised

00:21concerns, there's ongoing trade blockages with Australian lobsters, and the continued

00:26detention of Australian writer Yang Hengjun.

00:29Anthony Albanese was asked what his message will be going into today's meeting.

00:33My message will be a consistent one, which is that we'll cooperate where we can, we'll

00:39disagree where we must, and we'll have some direct discussions about some of the disagreements

00:44that are there, but also that it is in our interest to communicate with China, which

00:50is our largest trading partner.

00:52Anthony Albanese arrives in Laos at a time with plenty going on in global affairs, from

00:57conflict in the Middle East, to the looming US election.

01:00Those issues will loom large over this summit, and the Prime Minister's meetings around it.

01:05But some constant issues in this region, like tensions over the South China Sea, and the

01:10ongoing fallout from the coup in Myanmar, will still dominate discussions.

01:14While few expect substantial progress, some point to simply having key players in the

01:19room as a mark of success.

01:21The Prime Minister will also meet with leaders from Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand

01:26and Canada over the next two days.

01:28But his meeting with Premier Lee is top of the agenda, and could set the tone for the

01:32rest of this trip.