Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Friday night's meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi is an important first step towards stabilising relations between both countries.
The two ministers met on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bali, the first such face-to-face meeting at such a high level in almost three years.
Minister Wong says both she and Mr Wang spoke frankly and listened carefully to each other's priorities and concerns, but she says it will take time, effort, work and nuance to stabilise the bilateral relationship.
"We do have our differences, we do have our differences," Minister Wong told journalists after the meeting as she prepared to fly home from Bali.
"I don't intend to give a blow-by-blow account of the meeting for obvious reasons but I think it's a fair summation to say we both recognised it's a first step for both our nations.
"We've got a path to walk and we'll see if it can lead to a better place between the two countries."
Minister Wong says she raised Australia's concerns about China's ongoing trade blockages against Australian exports, as well as the detention of Australians in Chinese jails or detention, including Cheng Lei and Dr Yang Hengjun, who are accused of spying.
Asked if further meetings would be held in the near future, she said: "I think it would be in our interests to do, in both our interests, but that would require both countries to do so."
Earlier this week she called on Beijing to use its influence over Moscow to try and bring the conflict to an end, saying the region and the rest of the world was watching China's response to the crisis.
Both foreign ministers were already in Bali ahead of the G20 event — the first such meeting since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
The build-up to the gathering in Indonesia was dominated by the war in Ukraine and its impact on the global economy.
Top officials from Australia, Europe and the United States had stressed there will be no "business as usual" at the forum, without saying exactly what that might mean.
