According to Reuters reported on April 21, Australia’s Foreign Minister Payne (Marise Payne) announced the same day, Australia has canceled two Victorian state and China signed the “Belt and Road” cooperation agreement.
The Australian Parliament passed the Foreign Relations Act on Dec. 8 last year, authorizing the federal government, led by the prime minister, to regulate cooperation agreements reached between lower-level governments and foreign governments. The bill also empowers the foreign minister to set up a special body to review cooperation agreements with foreign governments, including state governments and university research institutions. The federal government has the power to annul them if they are found to be in violation of national foreign policy objectives.
It is reported that the two “Belt and Road” cooperation projects announced by Payne on the same day are the second largest state in Australia, Victoria, reached with China in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
The Australian government faced strong retaliation from the Chinese side last year for publicly calling for an independent international investigation into the origin of the new coronavirus. So far, Australia’s exports to China of coal, barley, wine, seafood, sugar, timber and meat have been comprehensively restricted. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian even tweeted a false image ridiculing the indiscriminate killing of civilians by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan on Nov. 30 last year, a move that provoked a public outcry in Australia and sent relations between the two countries to a low point.
In a statement on Wednesday, Australian Foreign Minister John Payne said two agreements with China involving the “Belt and Road” project were inconsistent with or detrimental to Australia’s foreign policy and diplomatic relations, according to the Foreign Relations Act passed by Parliament last year.
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