Albanese raises jet flare incident with Chinese premier ‘very directly’

Kuala Lumpur/Singapore: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese raised Australia’s concerns about the close encounter between a Chinese army aircraft and an Australian air force jet “very directly” with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit.

Speaking at the summit in Malaysia on Monday after becoming one of the first world leaders to meet with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Albanese also played down long-running concerns about the future of the security dialogue aimed at countering China’s influence in the Pacific. He suggested a leadership meeting could be held early next year.

Albanese’s meeting with Li comes after a successful visit to Washington last week, where he signed a $13 billion rare earths mining and processing deal with US President Donald Trump aimed at weakening China’s stranglehold on the critical sector.

Hours before Albanese’s White House meeting, the Australian government accused Beijing of engaging in “unsafe and unprofessional” conduct after a Chinese aircraft deployed flares close to an Australian P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft on October 19 over the South China Sea – the latest in a series of similar incidents between the two countries.

“He heard the message very directly,” Albanese told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Monday when asked how Li responded.

“I’m not here to report in on what people say when I have meetings. I’m accountable for what I say. And I made the position directly clear that this was an incident of concern for Australia.

“We have disagreements, and friends are able to discuss issues frankly. I did that. I did that directly.”

Albanese would not be drawn on whether he discussed with Li the details of the rare earths deal struck with Trump, but said the pair had talked about “the relationship with the US” and the “success of my visit” to Washington.

Despite the flare-ups over military encounters and Australia’s concerted efforts to counter China’s influence among Pacific nations, the Albanese government has sought to stabilise diplomatic relations and restore trade ties with Beijing. That has meant taking a lower-volume approach to criticism of Beijing than in the Morrison government era.

In remarks before the pair’s closed-door meeting, Li said the China-Australia relationship had deepened following Albanese’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in July in Beijing.

“Indeed, we are seeing an upward momentum in our relationship, and we welcome it, and we are happy to see it,” Li said.

Albanese, in turn, said he welcomed the tempo of the relationship, adding “whenever there are differences, we navigate those wisely”.

Albanese met with Takaichi on Sunday, where the pair reaffirmed their commitment to the Quad grouping, which comprises Australia, Japan, India and the US, and their strategic co-operation in the region.

“I also hope that our two countries can spearhead efforts so that we can push a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Takaichi told Albanese on the sidelines of the summit.

“Japan and Australia both have the will and capacity to realise these aspirations.”

Trump will meet Takaichi in Japan on Tuesday before heading to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, where his expected to meet with Xi for the first time during the American president’s second term on Thursday. Albanese is also heading to South Korea later in the week for APEC.

China’s latest sweeping export controls on rare earths and magnets are expected to be a key topic of discussion at the Trump-Xi meeting, along with tariffs, fentanyl trafficking co-operation, other export controls and Taiwan.

Earlier this month, a fragile trade truce between the US and China blew up again after the US moved to cut off technology exports to Chinese-owned subsidiaries of blacklisted companies. Beijing hit back with its far-reaching rare earths crackdown, leading Trump to threaten to impose an additional 100 per cent tariff on Chinese goods.

The two countries’ top trade negotiators appeared to broker a pathway for de-escalation on Sunday after two days of talks on the ASEAN sidelines, paving the way for Trump and Xi to sign a deal when they meet in South Korea on Thursday.

In a series of interviews with American TV networks following the talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed China would delay its rare earths restrictions “for a year while they re-examine it”, while the US would drop its latest tariff threat.

“I would expect that the threat of the 100 per cent [tariff] has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime,” Bessent said.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.