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MELBOURNE: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he discussed Australia’s critical-minerals deal with the United States and the hostile maneuvers of a Chinese warplane during a “positive” meeting on Monday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
Albanese and China’s second-most senior leader held a bilateral meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ summit.
“Once again, it was a positive meeting,” Albanese told reporters of his seventh meeting with Li.
“This is a relationship that has improved; that is stabilising,” Albanese added.
China has removed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers since Albanese’s center-left government was first elected in 2022. The barriers imposed in 2020 when Beijing banned minister-to-minister bilateral contacts had cost Australian exporters up to $13 billion a year.
Albanese said he and Li had discussed the Australian leader’s visit to the US last week during which he and US President Donald Trump signed a $8.5 billion critical minerals deal.
The US is eyeing Australia’s rich rare earth resources at a time when China is imposing tougher rules on exporting its own critical minerals abroad.
“We talked about the relationship with the US I clearly have indicated the success of my visit to the United States and we talked in a common way about that it was a good thing that President Trump and President Xi (Jinping) are having a meeting over the next little period,” Albanese said.
Albanese did not directly answer when a reporter asked if Li had expressed an opinion on the US-Australia minerals pact.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported Li told Albanese China hoped Australia will provide an open, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in the country.
China was also willing to cooperate with Australia on the green economy, high-tech industries and the digital sector, Li said.
Australia shares US concerns over China’s global dominance in critical minerals and control over supply chains in the renewable energy sector.
Last year, the Australian government ordered five China-linked companies to divest their shares in the rare earth mining company Northern Minerals, citing Australia’s national interests.
Australia’s foreign investment rules also prevent Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure.
Albanese said he had also raised with Li the behavior of a Chinese fighter jet during a confrontation with an Australian air force surveillance plane in international air space over the South China Sea on Oct. 19.
The Chinese Su-35 jet twice released flares “very close” to the Australian P-8 Poseidon aircraft, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said last week.
Australia officially protested what the government described as the Chinese air crew’s unsafe and unprofessional behavior.
Senior Col. Li Jianjian, a Chinese military spokesperson, accused the Australian aircraft of illegally entering the airspace of China’s Xisha Islands without Beijing’s approval.
“The actions of the Australian side seriously violated China’s sovereignty and could easily trigger unexpected maritime or aerial incidents. We sternly warn Australia to immediately cease its infringement and provocation,” the officer said in a statement last week.
Albanese said he told the premier “this was an incident of concern for Australia.”
“We have disagreements and friends are able to discuss issues frankly. I did that directly,” Albanese said.
Li “heard the message very directly. I’m not here to report in on … what people say when I have meetings,” Albanese added.
In July, Albanese said he complained about the Chinese military to President Xi Jinping during a bilateral meeting in Beijing. A Chinese flotilla had conducted a naval live-fire exercise off the Australian coast that forced commercial aircraft to change course in February.
The mission was widely regarded as a display of the Chinese military’s growing strength.
Albanese said he had raised with Li at a meeting in Australia last year recent clashes between the two countries’ militaries in the South China Sea and Yellow Sea that Australia argued endangered Australian personnel.

BAMAKO, Mali: Mali closed schools and universities nationwide starting Monday due to a fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on fuel imports militants imposed on the capital.
Education Minister Amadou Sy Savane announced on state television Sunday classes would be suspended for two weeks “due to disruptions in fuel supplies that are affecting the movement of school staff.”
Militants from the Al-Qaeda-backed Jama’at Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin group announced a ban on fuel imports from neighboring countries into Mali in early September, squeezing the landlocked country’s fragile economy and leaving hundreds of fuel trucks stranded at the border.
Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has battled an insurgency by armed groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group as well as local rebels. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, they have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance, which analysts say has made little difference.
In Mali’s capital, Bamako, endless queues have stretched in front of gas stations and the fuel scarcity has affected the price of commodities and transportation.
For a country that relies on fuel imports for domestic needs, the blockade is seen as a significant setback for Mali’s military junta. The junta defended its forceful takeover of power in 2020 as a necessary step to end decades of security crises.
The Malian military attempted to escort some fuel trucks from border areas to Bamako. Some trucks arrived but others were attacked by militants.
The education minister said Sunday that authorities were “doing everything possible” to restore normal fuel supplies before schools resume classes Nov. 10.