By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, a prominent supporter of China who has criticised Australia’s AUKUS nuclear submarine deal with the United States, said he would meet with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week.
Wang will meet with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong and hold a roundtable with business leaders in Canberra on Wednesday, on the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister since 2017.
He is expected to hold meetings in Sydney on Thursday, although an official schedule has not been publicly released.
Former Labor prime minister Keating, who lives in Sydney, said he received an “unexpected invitation from the Chinese Foreign Ministry for me to meet the Foreign Minister at the end of his visit”. The Australian government was assisting with arrangements, he said.
In a statement to Reuters, Keating said that Wang’s visit to Australia is a “good development” that he supports, and that he was pleased to have the opportunity to discuss international matters with Wang.
It is common for former prime ministers to meet ministers of other countries, he added.
“I have strongly supported the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in his desire, in his words, to re-anchor Australian foreign policy in the region,” he said.
“Australia has moved substantially from the counterproductive baiting policy the Morrison government applied to China to now something much more civil and productive,” added said.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
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