The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, made an extraordinary 6-day trip to China in which he made unprecedented progress in the bilateral relations. In this new episode of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden podcast series, Professor Warwick Powell from Brisbane in Australia and Senior Fellow at the prestigious Taihe Institute in Beijing, shares some unique insights about the dynamics of this visit and how it affects Australia’s relationship to China. In addition, reactions to this trip, both positive and negative are discussed. How will this new relationship affect Australia’s commitments to the AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States) or the QUAD (Australia, U.S., India, and Japan) alliances? In a certain way, Australia’s relationship to China is similar to Sweden’s relationship to the latter. The confusing position of Sweden and the EU vis-à-vis China is one of “partnership, competition, and strategic rivalry” does not make much sense. Therefore, Australia’s tackling of a complex relationship with China in a positive way would be beneficial for Sweden and the EU to learn from.
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