Australia said on Thursday (April 22) that two agreements between Victoria and China on the Belt and Road Initiative were canceled because they were inconsistent with the federal government’s foreign policy of seeing a “free and open Indo-Pacific” as a key objective.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters that the Victorian agreement was canceled because the federal government did not want other levels of government to enter into agreements that were inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy, Reuters reported.
He said, “We will always act in Australia’s national interest to protect Australia, but also to ensure that we can advance our national interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific and a world that seeks a free balance.”
In an interview with a local radio station Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Australia’s decision was not country-specific.
“Our focus is on our national interest, our sovereignty and our national security, regardless of which country it involves,” she told 3AW radio.
Payne also said that along with China’s “Belt and Road” agreement, the Victorian government’s agreements with Syria and Iran were also cancelled.
Australia passed the Foreign Relations Act late last year, giving the federal government the power to cancel cooperation agreements signed by foreign countries with Australian state governments, local councils and public universities. In a statement Wednesday, Payne announced the cancellation of four Victorian cooperation agreements with countries such as China.
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a Victorian government spokesman said, “The Foreign Relations Act is entirely a matter for the federal government. The Victorian government will continue to work to provide jobs, trade and economic opportunities for our state.”
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien, however, welcomed the federal government’s decision, tweeting, “One Belt, One Road is not in the interest of being in Victoria, it’s not good for jobs, it’s not good for security and it’s not good for our sovereignty.”
Hans Hendrischke, a professor at the University of Sydney’s business school, told Reuters that the cancellation of the agreements would have minimal impact on business because no projects had yet been launched.
China expressed “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the Australian government’s decision. Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Thursday that China had made serious representations to Australia and reserved the right to make further reactions.
He added: “We urge the Australian side to abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological bias, look at China-Australia cooperation objectively and rationally, immediately correct its mistakes and change course, and not go further and further down the wrong path, adding to the already serious difficulties facing China-Australia relations.”
Relations between Australia and China are currently strained. China has taken a series of economic “punitive measures” against Australia following Australia’s request last year for an international investigation into the source of the new crown virus. China has taken the form of restrictions on imports of some products and punitive tariffs, which have affected Australian products such as beef and wine.
Recent Comments