Melbourne
The Australian Government congratulates Mr Xi Jinping on his appointment as President of the People's Republic of China and Mr Li Keqiang on his appointment as Premier of China's State Council during this week's National People's Congress in Beijing.
China's new leaders are well known to Australia. Xi Jinping visited Australia as Vice President in 2010. Premier Li's visit to Australia as Vice Premier in 2009 saw the conclusion of an important joint statement setting out principles for closer cooperation between our two countries.
President Xi and Premier Li take up their positions at an important time for the bilateral relationship. China, our largest trading partner and biggest single export market, is one of Australia's most important partners in Asia.
Last year's anniversary marking 40 years of diplomatic relations between our two countries provided an opportunity to celebrate the remarkable evolution of our relationship with China, which is stronger and more broadly based than ever before.
There is great potential to develop our partnership further in this Asian Century. Prime Minister Gillard looks forward to meeting President Xi and Premier Li at an early opportunity and to working closely with them to advance ties with China on all fronts, including through deeper economic, political, security and people-to-people links.
The Prime Minister would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the contribution by China's outgoing President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to strengthening bilateral ties in the past ten years.