At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia John Howard, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council arrived by special plane in Perth on the evening of April 1, kicking off his official visit to Australia.

After the arrival of the special plane, Australian Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources Ian Macfarlane, as Prime Minister Howard's Representative, Western Australian State Premier Alan Carpenter, Australian Ambassador to China Alan Thomas and other officials welcomed Wen at the airport. A young woman from the Chinese Consulate General in Perth presented a bouquet to Wen.

In a written speech delivered at the airport, Wen said that both countries are located in the Asia Pacific region and share broad common interest in many areas. Currently, bilateral relations enjoy sound development momentum and both sides have conducted fruitful mutually beneficial cooperation in economy, trade and other areas. Bilateral relations have a solid basis and are faced with new development opportunities. To deepen bilateral comprehensive cooperative relations conforms to the fundamental interest of both countries and their people and is conductive to stability and prosperity of the Asia Pacific region and the world at large.

Wen said that his current visit is aimed at further pushing for all-round, in-depth development of bilateral relations and he looked forward to exchanging in-depth views on bilateral relations, as well as international and regional issues of common interest with Prime Minister Howard and other Australian leaders and broadly engaging with personages from all walks of life of Australia in a bid to build up mutual understanding and friendship and push for continuous development of bilateral comprehensive cooperative relations.

Among those who welcomed Wen at the airport were Chinese Ambassador to Australia Fu Ying and the staff of the Chinese Embassy in Australia and Consulate General in Perth, as well as representatives from Chinese-funded institutions, overseas Chinese and Chinese students studying in Australia.

Australia is the first leg of Wen's current tour. He will also pay official visits to Fiji, New Zealand and Cambodia upon invitation and attend the opening ceremony of the first "China-Pacific Island Countries Economic Development and Cooperation Forum" to be held in Fiji.

Perth, capital of the state of Western Australia, is located in the western part of Australia. The state of Western Australia has abundant resources, as well as well-developed agriculture and animal husbandry. In recent years, exchanges and cooperation between the state of Western Australia and China have been increasingly expanded in the areas of economy & trade, education, culture and science & technology.