Sharjah24 - AFP: A group of Australian MPs will leave Sunday for a five-day visit to Taiwan, a spokesman for one of the politicians said Saturday, risking China's ire just as Beijing-Canberra relations appeared to be thawing.
The bipartisan trip will be the first such Taiwan visit in more than three years, a period marked by a long disruption to air travel caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Details of the visit were confirmed to AFP by a spokesman for Scott Buchholz, a conservative MP who is in the delegation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to play down the mission's significance after it was first reported by the Weekend Australian newspaper.
"There have been backbench visits to Taiwan for a long time. This is another one. This isn't a government visit," he told reporters.
Albanese said both major Australian political parties supported the "One China" policy, which recognises Beijing, not Taipei, while backing the status quo on the self-ruled island.
Asked about the aims of the trip, he said: "I have no idea. I'm not going. You should ask them."
The delegation of six MPs includes members of the centre-left ruling Labor Party as well as the conservative opposition Liberal Party and its ally, the National Party.
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, of the National Party, is part of the group, the spokesman for Buchholz said.
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