China wants to restart joint military operations with Australia

China wants to restart joint military operations with Australia to “further develop and consolidate” the relationship between the two nations after a year of improving dialogue.

China’s Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian held a rare briefing with journalists in Canberra on Wednesday, which went for two hours and covered topics including the ongoing trade tariffs, the Taiwan election and a potential visit by the Chinese President.

Mr Xiao said 2023 was “a year of exchange, dialogue and improvement” for the Beijing and Canberra relations while adding that this year would be to “consolidate the momentum of civilisation and improvement”.

He said the bilateral ties had “stabilised and improved” and that there was now a need for China to “look at the defence relationship” between the two countries amid the threat Beijing plays in escalating strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.

“(It’s) an area where we need to promote inputs and work harder on,” the ambassador said.

“It’s so important to the mutual trust and confidence in our two countries . . . if you have trust between two militaries, you do not have to build trust. I’d like to see more interactions (and) engagement between our defence people.”

Australian and Chinese troops used to take part in an annual exercise — known as Pandaroo, which was a series of adventure training and survival skills exercises.

This was before bilateral ties went downhill when China put tariffs and restrictions on $20 billion worth of Australian exports in 2020 after the Morrison government called for an international inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

“We used to have in the past several decades mutual visits, joint military exercises, all kinds of things... these need to be picked up again and resume again to help promote to re-establish mutual trust and confidence,” Mr Xiao said.

“This area I hope, expected in this new year, we can make some progress.”

It comes as Australian Defence Force personnel and equipment are being strategically shuffled around the country to make sure the nation is well-prepared in the event of a conflict in the region from the rising might of China.

This is in response to the Defence Strategic Review, which was released last year and used sharper language on China than in the 2020 update.

It pointed to the Asian giant’s military build-up, assertion of sovereignty over the South China Sea and strategic competition in Australia’s near-neighbourhood.

The Federal Government’s defence relationship with China is focused on dialogue.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his Government would “cooperate where we can, we will disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our national interest” when it came to China.

“We won’t allow differences which are there to define our relationship,” Mr Albanese said.

“I want a constructive relationship.”

There was speculation the ambassador may have announced a scaling back of more trade barriers, which remain in place on Australian wine, beef and lobster.

Instead, Mr Xiao said he anticipated an update “in the coming months”.

Mr Xiao also suggested a Japanese vessel was responsible for sonar pulses in November that caused Australian naval divers minor injuries in international waters after Australia claimed it was China.

He said sonar from Chinese warships would have likely caused “immediate fatalities”.

A spokesman for Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy said Australia conveyed to the Chinese Government at the time “our serious concerns and we stand by our position regarding the unsafe and unprofessional conduct by the People’s Liberation Army Navy”.

The ambassador urged Australia to refrain from commentary on Taiwan’s election and denied his country offered any financial incentive for Nauru to break diplomatic ties with Taiwan.

He also said Chinese President Xi Jinping was considering an invitation to meet with Mr Albanese in Australia this year.