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Australia has canceled agreements between the China Belt and Road Initiative and the Victoria state government, to a extent that could further aggravate ties between the two nations.
The Australian federal government has canceled both the memorandum of understanding and the framework agreement signed between Victoria and China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in an emailed statement on Wednesday. Two other agreements between Victoria and the governments of Iran and Syria were also canceled.
“I believe these four arrangements are incompatible with Australia’s foreign policy or are negative to our foreign relations,” Payne said.
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The bans are the first under laws passed by the national parliament in December, which gives the foreign minister the opportunity to suspend new and previously signed agreements between overseas governments and Australia’s eight states and territories, as well as with bodies such as local authorities and universities.
Payne’s move could further aggravate ties between Australia and its largest trading partner, which have been in freefall for a year after the government called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus. Since then, Beijing has provoked a series of trade retaliation, including the imposition of crippling tariffs on Australian barley and wine, while blocking coal shipments.
The action “is another unreasonable and provocative move by the Australian side against China,” the Chinese embassy in Canberra said in an email. “It also shows that the Australian government is not sincere in improving China-Australia relations – it is bound to do additional damage to bilateral relations and will only get hurt.”
No thawing
The announcement came on the same day as a Chinese diplomat indicated that there would be no immediate thaw in connections between Beijing and Canberra.
“We have done nothing intentional to hurt this relationship and we have seen too many incidents in recent years that have affected China’s interest,” Wang Xining, deputy head of the Chinese embassy mission in Canberra, told reporters on Wednesday.
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The BIS is dealing with Victoria, the country’s second most populous state, with the aim of increasing China’s participation in new infrastructure projects. They were signed between October 2018 and a year later.
While the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment sent outside normal office hours on Wednesday, in August its spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Australia that his nation’s cooperation with Victoria in the field of BIS benefited both parties.
“Australia should have an objective view of such cooperation and the BIS and not create impediments to China-Australia cooperation,” Zhao said.
Research partnerships
The laws allow Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government to block or reduce foreign involvement in a wide range of sectors, such as infrastructure, trade cooperation, tourism, cultural collaboration, science, health and education, including university research partnerships.
Payne said on Wednesday she had been alerted to more than 1,000 agreements between foreign governments and Australian states and territories, local governments and public universities since the laws were passed.
The law may allow the federal government to review and cancel memoranda of understanding between Beijing and the state governments of Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania in sectors ranging from investment, scientific cooperation and access to Antarctica.
“I will continue to consider foreign agreements,” Payne said. “I expect the vast majority of them to remain unaffected.”
– With the assistance of Colin Keatinge
(Updates with comments from the Chinese Embassy in the sixth paragraph.)