Australia’s new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that the country’s relationship with China would remain “a difficult one”. This statement, by the new Australian prime minister, comes ahead of him leaving for a Quad summit in Japan with US President Joe Biden and leaders of Japan and India.

“It is China that has changed, not Australia, and Australia should always stand up for our values and we will be in a government that I lead,” Albanese said during a media briefing, after taking charge as the country’s 31st prime minister.

Also read: Ahead of Quad meeting, Australia swears in new Labor Party leader as Prime Minister

Australia’s relations with China, its largest trading partner, are at a low ebb after they clashed over a number of issues including trade, the origins of the coronavirus and accusations from Australia of foreign interference.

Earlier, the new Australian prime minister spoke to US President Joe Biden on Sunday night and was looking forward to meeting him during the Quad summit on Tuesday alongside the prime ministers of Japan and India. He will return to Australia on Wednesday.

Also read: Australia’s new PM Anthony Albanese to meet Biden, Modi, Kishida on Tuesday

The Labor Party will come to power after nine years in Opposition as a wave of unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focussed independents, mostly women, helped end nearly a decade of rule by the conservative coalition.

Labor’s campaign heavily spotlighted Albanese’s working-class credentials – a boy raised in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension – and his image as a pragmatic unifier.

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Centre-left Labor still remains four seats short of a majority of 76 in the 151 seat lower house with about a dozen races too close to call, according to television channels. Some predicted Labor might get enough seats to govern on their own.