Economic and trade cooperation between China and Australia saw stable development in 2021, with China remaining Australia’s largest trading partner in goods, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

Bilateral trade amounted to approximately 231.2 billion US dollars last year, a rise of 35.1 percent year on year, according to ministry spokesperson Gao Feng.

China’s imports from Australia reached 164.82 billion US dollars in 2021, jumping 40.6 percent from a year ago, Gao said.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Australia, Gao said that economic and trade cooperation has been one of the most active and vibrant driving forces promoting bilateral relations over the past 50 years.

“The sound and stable development of China-Australia relations serves the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples, and contributes to the peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region,” Gao said.

The spokesperson expressed the hope that the new Australian government will face up to cruxes in bilateral relations, treat China and China’s development in an objective and rational way, and make more efforts to increase mutual trust and cooperation, so as to create favorable conditions for the healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations.