China is sending a new pair of giant pandas to Australia in a sign of improving relations

CNN
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China will introduce a new pair of giant pandas AustraliaChinese Premier Li Qiang said on Sunday, in the latest sign of improving relations between the two countries.

The Australian Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that Lee made the announcement at the Adelaide Zoo at the beginning of a four-day trip to the country. He said China would send a new pair of giant pandas to the South Australian Zoo after the current pair returns to China later this year, according to Chinese state media.

Li’s visit to Australia, the first by a Chinese Premier in seven years, comes after a visit to Beijing Lifting high tariffs on Australian wine It scrapped barriers on barley, timber and coal that were imposed following then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call in 2020 for an international investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in China.

But relations between the two countries have improved since the Labor Party came to power in Australia in 2022.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner, accounting for nearly a third of its foreign trade, according to the Australian government. Meanwhile, goods imported from Australia are important to Beijing’s efforts to revive its faltering economy.

China lends pandas to more than 20 countries as friendship envoys from Beijing – a program often referred to as “panda diplomacy” – which is sometimes seen as a barometer of relations.

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 state-run Chinese News Agency. Xinhua.

Li, China’s second-highest-ranking official, said he was happy to see that “despite being far from home, Wang Wang and Fu Ni have been well cared for and have settled down to live a happy life in Australia,” according to a statement. From the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“They have become envoys of friendship between China and Australia, and a symbol of the profound friendship between the two peoples,” Li said in the statement.