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Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (R, Front) and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (L, Front) walk into the venue of Australia-China Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum in Beijing, capital of China, April 26, 2011. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
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BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday expressed the hope that China-Australia energy and resources relationship should go beyond the buyer-seller one.
"The two countries should seek a long-term stable and strategic cooperation in energy and resources, rather than maintain a simple buyer-seller relationship," Li said in a key-note speech at a China-Australia economic and trade forum on Tuesday.
The forum coincided with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's first visit to China since she took office last year.
"With regard to energy and resources, China and Australia should innovate their ways of cooperation and seek mutual benefit," Li told an audience of about 600 government leaders and business executives from the two countries.
Energy and resources, including iron ore, coal and natural gas, were at the heart of China-Australia relationship as iron ore alone accounted for nearly half of Australian exports to China in 2009-2010.
Gillard said Australia's economic ties with China were "in good shape," citing last year two-way trade exceeded 100 billion Australian dollars for the first time - a sixfold increase in the past 10 years, and one quarter of all Australian exports came to China.
China-Australia economic relations had developed rapidly in recent years with China becoming the largest cargo trading partner for Australia while Australia was the eighth largest for China.
Bilateral trade volume grew by 46.5 percent in 2010 and 39.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to Chinese Ministry of Commerce.
