Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday said that he will not be accompanying the group of federal politicians, who will be travelling to Taiwan on a five-day official tour, which is aimed at conveying the wishes of Australia to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific.
The group, which includes MPs of Australia’s opposition Liberal-National coalition and governing Labor Party, will embark on the tour on Sunday. It will be the first such delegation to visit Australia since 2019.
On Saturday, PM Albanese called the trip a “backbench” visit to Taiwan, one which is not led by the government. “There remains a bipartisan position when it comes to China and when it comes to support for the status quo on Taiwan,” said Albanese, while speaking to reporters in Renmark, South Australia.
The spokesperson of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said that politicians, belonging to different parties, visited Taiwan before the pandemic and this delegation “represents a resumption of that activity”.
The group is likely to hold meetings with Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and President Tsai Ing-wen. As per reports, the trip is being kept a secret from Chinese diplomats who are lobbying in Canberra for its cancellation.
The delegation’s visit to Democratic Taiwan comes at a time when the Labour government of Australia has moved towards repairing its diplomatic relations with China.
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