Chinese-Australian links are improving after a turnaround in relations, President Xi Jinping has told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while acknowledging “some twists and turns” in the past.

Albanese met the Chinese president, in their third formal encounter, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brazil on Monday (local time).

Before the talks between the two started in Rio de Janeiro overnight, Xi recalled visiting Australia in 2014.

“Ten years ago today, I was on a state visit in Australia. And on this very day, during which our two sides agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership,” Xi said.

Xi addressed the parliament in Canberra at the time and was hosted by then-prime minister Tony Abbott.

“Over the past decade, we have made some progress in China-Australia relations and also witnessed some twists and turns. That trajectory has many inspirations to offer,” Xi told Albanese.

“Now, our relations have realised a turnaround and continues to grow, bringing tangible benefits to our two peoples,” he said.

“This is the result of our collective hard work in the same direction, and should be maintained with great care.”

Albanese, who visited Beijing a year ago, said there had been “further encouraging progress in the stabilisation of our relationship” and that trade was “flowing more freely” between the countries.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner and total two-way trade hit a record $327 billion in 2023.

Chinese authorities introduced sanctions – since lifted – on Australian products in 2020 after the government of then-prime minister Scott Morrison called for an international inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We continue to explore opportunities for practical co-operation in areas of shared interest, including on our energy transition and climate change,” Albanese said on Tuesday.

“We live in the fastest growing region of the world in human history – and the rise of China has contributed to this while lifting the living standards of hundreds of millions of people through increased economic activity”.

G20 begins with global pact

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has opened the summit of the Group of 20 major economies with the launch of a global alliance to combat poverty and hunger that 81 countries have agreed to back.

As G20 leaders met at Rio de Janeiro’s Modern Art Museum for two days of talks, their agenda highlighted a shifting global order as US president-elect Donald Trump returns to power.

Their discussions of trade, climate change and international security will run up against the sharp US policy changes that Trump vows upon taking office in January, from tariffs to the promise of a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine.

In his opening remarks, Lula said the devastating effects of a changing climate could be seen around the world, calling for action by leaders on global warming and poverty.

The alliance he launched, co-ordinating global efforts to eradicate hunger and poverty, is backed by the African Union and European Union, international organisations, development banks and philanthropies such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Hunger and poverty are not the result of scarcity or natural phenomena … they are the product of political decisions,” said Lula, who was born in poverty and entered politics organising a metalworkers union.

Diplomats drafting a joint statement for the summit’s leaders have struggled to hold together a fragile agreement on how to address the escalating Ukraine war, even a vague call for peace without criticism of any participants, sources said.

A massive Russian air strike on Ukraine on Sunday shook what little consensus they had established, with European diplomats pushing to revisit previously agreed language on global conflicts.

The US has also lifted prior limits on Ukraine’s use of US-made weapons to strike deep into Russia.

Security tested

Security in Rio de Janeiro has been strengthened with troops reinforcing police for the duration of the summit.

A Brazilian army patrol came under gunfire near a Rio de Janeiro slum in the hours before the summit began, police said.

No one was injured in the incident by the hillside Cidade de Deus community 20 kilometres west of the G20 venue.

While US President Joe Biden arrives as a lame duck with just two months remaining in the White House, Xi will be a central player at a G20 summit riven with geopolitical tensions amid the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.

Brazil’s push for reform of global governance, including multilateral financial institutions, may also hit roadblocks with Trump, Brazilian officials said.

Biden, who visited the Amazon rainforest on his way to Rio, is set to announce a pledge to replenish the World Bank’s International Development Association fund aimed at the world’s poorest countries, and launch a bilateral clean energy partnership with Brazil, a senior US official said.