Albo to meet with China’s Xi Jinping

Anthony Albanese is set to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, ending a three-year diplomatic deep freeze.

It will be the first time in six years the leaders of Australia and China have had a formal meeting.

Professor of Asia-Pacific Security Studies at Macquarie University, Dr Bates Gill, says it’s “absolutely a good sign” for relations between the two countries.

“There are good reasons for why they ought to be lifting or lightening some of these punitive measures which have been imposed on Australia,” he told Ross and Russel.

“Obviously it does have a negative impact on some aspects of the Chinese economy and just the overall tone of China’s approach in the region is made more negative by taking these sort of punitive measures.”

But Dr Gill doesn’t think it’ll be a long meeting.

“I think it’s going to be mostly for setting the atmospherics, for setting tone,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear what Dr Gill expects from the meeting

Image: (Albanese) Martin Ollman/Getty Images / (Jinping) Kevin Frayer/Getty Images