China will send a new pair of giant pandas to Australia, Premier Li Qiang said on Sunday. This is a sign of warming diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Qiang noted that China will send the animals to a zoo in South Australia after two pandas return to China later this year, according to Chinese state media.
The prime minister made the announcement at Adelaide Zoo, as he began a four-day trip to Australia, Australian public broadcaster ABC reported.
Qiang’s visit to Australia, the first by a Chinese prime minister in seven years, comes after Beijing lifted high tariffs on Australian wine and lifted barriers on barley, timber and coal that were imposed by then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison. , in 2020.
The reason was an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in China.
Relations between the countries have improved since the Labor Party came to power in Australia in 2022.
China is the Oceania country’s largest trading partner, accounting for almost a third of its foreign trade, according to the Australian government. However, raw materials from Australia are important to Beijing’s efforts to boost its economy.
The Chinese government lends pandas to more than 20 countries as a symbol of Beijing’s friendship, an action known as “panda diplomacy”. Sometimes, this is seen as a barometer of relations between countries.
Giant pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni, the only pandas in the Southern Hemisphere, have been on loan to Adelaide Zoo since November 2009. In 2019, an agreement was reached to extend their stay for another five years, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Qiang said he was happy to see that “although far from their homeland, Wang Wang and Fu Ni were well taken care of and settled down to live a happy life in Australia,” according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“They became envoys of friendship between China and Australia and a symbol of the deep friendship between the two peoples”, highlighted the premier in the statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
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