(Bloomberg) -- Australia is preparing for a visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the country’s second-most senior leader, in a sign that improving relations between Canberra and Beijing weren’t upended by recent setbacks.

“The prime minister looks forward to welcoming Premier Li to Australia. I’m pleased that this is on track and we agreed on work to prepare for that meeting,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday after meeting her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. No other details were provided on Li’s visit.

The two top diplomats discussed the removal of the remaining trade sanctions on Australian exports, the volatility in international nickel markets, as well as the suspended death sentence handed by China to Australian citizen Yang Hengjun last month.

Wong said she had told her Chinese counterpart that Australia was “shocked” by the sentence. At the same time, she told Wang it was important for both sides to maintain communication, and that talks should never be “withheld as a punishment or offered as a reward.”

According to a Chinese readout of the meeting, Wang told his counterpart that there were “tremendous opportunities” for growth between the two countries and that their economies were “highly complementary.”

Wang is the most senior Chinese official to visit the country in seven years, with his trip coming against the backdrop of Beijing potentially removing punitive tariffs on Australian wine to end a three-year trade dispute. China has scrapped trade curbs on barley, timber and coal.

While relations between Beijing and Canberra have warmed since the election of the center-left Labor nearly two years ago, setbacks like the February death sentence and a navy divers incident in November have threatened to sour relations.

“As you know, dialogue enables us to manage our differences; we both know it does not eliminate them. Australia will always be Australia and China will always be China,” Wong said.

Earlier this week, China’s foreign minister talked about trade and investment with his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters in Wellington and also discussed “areas of difference” including human rights issues.

--With assistance from Zoe Ma.

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