Australia cancels Belt & Road agreement with China, says it goes against national interest

Australia on April 21 announced that it has cancelled controversial Belt and Ro (BRI) agreement with China saying it goes against its national interest. In an official order, Scott Morrison government scrapped agreement signed between state government of Victoria and National Development and Reform Commission of China, which was signed on October 8, 2018. Australian government ditionally also cancelled a framework agreement signed between two sides on October 23, 2019. 

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said that BRI agreement has been cancelled under Commonwealth’s new foreign veto laws. She informed that this scheme requires federal government to cancel agreements that state, territories, local governments and universities enter into with an overseas government if y contrict country’s national interest. Payne furr ded that she considered agreement to be “inconsistent” with Australia’s foreign policy or verse to our foreign relations. 

BRI was initiated in 2013 and it is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s grand plan to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime tre networks to create new routes for China. Sydney Morning reported that decision to cancel deal was me because Morrison government and national security experts were concerned that China was using agreement with Victoria as a propaganda win to claim that state government h broken ranks with Australia’s China policy. Moreover, Australian government is also worried that China was using BRI to lo up poorer countries with debt and reduce Australia’s influence in region. 

China-Australia relations 

Meanwhile, cancellation of BRI agreement could now furr increase tensions between Canberra and Beijing. relations between two nations have alrey been in a downward spiral since April last year when Canberra infuriated Beijing by proposing an independent international inquiry into origins of COVID-19 pandemic. Australia has also been locked in an ongoing tre war with China for several months, which has seen China slap sanctions on various Australian products. Unofficially, China has even banned Australian imports of coal, sugar, lobsters, barley, wine, copper and log timber since November 2020. 

(With inputs from ANI)