China, Australia vow to boost mutual trust, cooperation

A joint statement signed by the governments of China and Australia on Oct. 30, 2009, serves as a fundamental principle for friendly bilateral cooperation and development. It is the first statement of its kind covering various aspects of common concern such as politics, economy, humanity and multilateral cooperation since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1972.

Sino-Australia relations experienced ups and downs because of Rio Tinto's spy case over the past months. Some Australians took a distorted view on China's investment in Australia and the Australian government took inappropriate measures on some issues concerning key Chinese interests. The release of a joint statement marked the warming up of bilateral ties after this recent cold spell. The two countries are planning to consolidate mutual trust and further enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation and exchanges.

China and Australia are two countries of great influence in the Asia-Pacific region. The bilateral ties over the past years witnessed remarkable progress. The two countries do not have any historical resentment, and share common ground and interests in terms of politics, economy, trade, education and cultural exchanges.

China and Australia are complementary to each other in terms of economy and trade. China's economic aggregate ranks the third in the world, and Australia's 14th. The bilateral trade volume between the two in 2008 totaled 59.66 billion U.S. dollars, and maintained fast growth this year despite the global economic downturn. China has now become Australia's largest trading partner and export market; meanwhile Australia is China's key trade and investment partner. The two sides maintained a good momentum of friendly cooperation in many fields.

In terms of human exchanges and cooperation, China and Australia achieved positive results in sci-tech, education, culture and tourism. According to statistics, a total of 130,000 Chinese students are studying in Australia now, making China the largest source of overseas students in Australia and over 400,000 Chinese tourists come to Australia every year. China will host "Australia Cultural Year in 2010 and "Chinese Cultural Year" will be held in Australia in 2011.

Source: Xinhua