Xi attended last year’s G20 summit in Indonesia,where Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only invited leader to skip the event.
Bishop,who served as foreign minister from 2013 to 2018,will attend the Australia-China high-level dialogue,which was launched in 2014. It is known in diplomatic parlance as a “1.5 track” forum,meaning conversations include a mix of government officials participating in an unofficial capacity and non-government experts.
Former foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop is headed to China to help repair bilateral relations.Credit:Andrew Meares
Bishop said she would be briefed by DFAT on the agenda for the trip over the coming days.
The dialogue is co-hosted by DFAT and the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs,an official Chinese government think tank.
The private talks typically feature former senior politicians from both Labor and the Coalition.
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A source familiar with the planning of the event but not authorised to speak publiclysaid they expected it would feature a “frank and fearless” exchange of views,adding it was the latest demonstration of a steady thaw in tensions between the two nations since the election of the Albanese government.
China last month removed tariffs on Australian barley imports,following previous moves to lift sanctions on Australian timber and coal that were introduced in 2020.
Emerson declined to comment on the trip,which has yet to be formally announced.
Benjamin Herscovitch,a China expert at the Australian National University,said it was unlikely the event would lead to specific policy outcomes but added:“This is important because of what it says about how the bilateral relationship is changing.
“Beijing wants to turn back on the mechanisms that signal warmth and understanding in the relationship.”
Former prime minister John Howard co-chaired the most recent high-level dialogue in Sydney in January 2020,which was also attended by former Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing.
The most recent meeting wasalso attended by China’s then-ambassador to Australia and officials from China’s ministries of commerce and foreign affairs as well as the then-head of DFAT and Australia’s ambassador to China Graham Fletcher.
Jennifer Staats,a China expert at the United States Institute of Peace,has described 1.5-track dialogues as a form of back-channel diplomacy that allows “government officials to discuss sensitive issues in their personal capacity,where they can go beyond government talking points and explore new ideas without fear that their comments will be made public”.
“These closed-door discussions help policymakers better understand the motivations and interests of the other actors and get a clearer sense of how their policy initiatives are perceived by their foreign counterparts,” Staats said.
“Track 1.5 dialogues also provide an opportunity to solicit feedback on ‘trial balloon’ policy ideas and alternative approaches,so that they can be refined and improved before they feed into the official policy process.”
DFAT was approached for comment.
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