Australia hopes for China trade deal despite Huawei ban

Washington (AFP) - Australia said Friday it hoped to reach free trade agreements within months with China, as well as Japan and South Korea, despite a decision against telecom giant Huawei.

Australia last year barred Huawei from bidding to build its national broadband network, saying that security agencies warned that the Chinese company posed risks.

The new conservative government has maintained the ban on Huawei, which has also come under scrutiny in the United States. China, meanwhile, has accused Western nations of protectionism.

On a visit to Washington, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop reaffirmed that Australia sought free trade agreements with South Korea, Japan and China -- "probably in that order" -- within a year.

"Yes, of course the Chinese are not happy about an ongoing discussion in Australia about one of its global telecommunications companies," Bishop said.

"However, we hope that we will be able to negotiate an ambitious but pragmatic free trade agreement with them notwithstanding that decision," she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Bishop said Australia also put a priority on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a US-led drive to forge a trade pact among 12 nations in the Asia Pacific region.

"The bottom line is simple -- the United States, just as it plays a fundamental role in regional stability, needs to be in the game on regional trade," she said.

Bishop added that Australia, a longstanding US ally, welcomed President Barack Obama's "pivot" strategy putting more attention on Asia, seeing the economically dynamic region as vital to the future.

"United States engagement in our region is more in the American national interest than it has ever been in the past," Bishop said.

"In my meetings with regional leaders, they want more United States leadership and not less."