Chinese embassy meeting with Paul Keating is ‘insulting’ to Penny Wong

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Birmingham says the Chinese embassy meeting with former prime minister Paul Keating is “insulting” to Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.

His comments follow after the former prime minister recently confirmed he would also be meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

“You have a look at what Paul Keating’s had to say about Penny Wong and the Albanese government and he’s been highly, highly critical of them and indeed of anything other than a pretty cozy relationship between Australia and China,” he told Sky News Australia.

“We welcome Wang Yi’s visit to Australia, it’s an important visit.

“It is welcome that China is no longer imposing the type of ban on dialogue that was so counterproductive to any relationship.”