Designation/description	Year of first designation/use	Context
Strategic partnership	Circa 1997	Independently used by the Howard government to describe Australia’s relationship with China in March 1997
Comprehensive cooperative ties for mutual benefit in the 21^st century	2006	Designation adopted during Premier Wen Jiabao’s April 2006 visit to Australia
Comprehensive and cooperative relationship/Comprehensive and constructive relationship	2009	Formulation in joint statement between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Vice Premier Li Keqiang in November/December 2009 and used again in slightly different format during Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s meeting with Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin in April 2011
Strategic partnership	2013	Designation adopted during Prime Minister Gillard’s April 2013 visit to China
Comprehensive strategic partnership	2014	Designation adopted during President Xi Jinping’s November 2014 visit to Australia

Select Senior Officials Meetings

Title	Details	No. of meetings	First/last held	Status
Australia-China Defence Strategic Dialogue	Forum for discussions between Australia’s Department of Defence and China’s People’s Liberation Army	22	1997/2019	Inoperative: 2020-22 Resumption announced: Late 2022 Appears to have resumed in some form in March 2022 (e.g., here, here, here, and here)
Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue	Forum for discussions between parliamentarians, senior officials from a range of government agencies, and the Australian Human Rights Commission	15	1997/2014	Formally suspended