China and Australia will keep open dialogue and look for areas of cooperation despite strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday after meeting China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The prime minister of Australia, a longtime US security partner in Asia, sought to focus his trip to China this week on business and trade opportunities, sidestepping thornier issues around US-China competition such as Taiwan or Beijing’s military expansion.

Australia is close to finalizing a deal with China to resume canola exports after a four-year suspension, according to sources familiar with the matter. The agreement could allow five trial shipments of Australian canola,