'Inconsistent with foreign policy': Morrison urges Victoria to scrap BRI deal
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blasted Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative agreement with China, saying it is against Australia's national interest, and is urging Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to scrap the deal.
The intervention will place further pressure on Mr Andrews, who is pushing ahead with his BRI deal with Beijing despite widespread concerns within senior ranks of the Australian government.
Scott Morrison says Daniel Andrews should back down on the BRI agreement.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The BRI is Chinese President Xi Jinping's signature foreign policy agenda to bankroll infrastructure around the world, and has been criticised by some countries for engaging in "debt diplomacy" whereby developing nations are loaded up with unsustainable debts.
The deal with Victoria will allow for Chinese investment in Victoria and for Victorian companies to participate in Chinese government projects overseas.
Mr Morrison said all states and territories should not be entering into agreements inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy.
"It is a program that the Australian foreign policy doesn't recognise… because we don't believe it is consistent with Australia's national interest," Mr Morrison told 3AW's Neil Mitchell.
"There are many security issues the government addresses on a day-to-day basis and they're addressed in a very secure way, and I don't propose to engage in a public commentary on those.
"It is not a program that the Australian government has signed up to, it is not the Australian government's foreign policy. And all states and territories should not be doing things that act inconsistently with the federal policy."
Asked whether the Victorian Premier should back down, Mr Morrison said: "He should, because it is inconsistent with the Australian government's policy."
Australia's relationship with China is at all-time low with Beijing issuing a warning for students and tourists travelling to Australia, accusing the country of "an alarming increase" in racial discrimination and violence during the pandemic.
China also launched trade strikes on $1 billion worth of beef and barley in April after Australia lobbied for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.
Mr Morrison said any suggestion there was racism being directed towards Chinese students in Australia was "rubbish".
He said Australia would not back down from standing up for its values and China's threats towards the country were "really a question for them".
"We're just being Australians and we have done nothing, nor sought to do anything, that is inconsistent with our values or has sought to be in any way hostile in our partnership with China," Mr Morrison said.
"Whether it's our position on our telecommunications networks, on foreign interference, on how we stand up on issues of human rights, on our positions of open freedom of navigation."
NATO's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg this week called on the military alliance to stand up to China's "bullying and coercion", urging closer links with countries such as Australia and New Zealand.
Asked about NATO's intervention, Mr Morrison said: "We won't bow or trade away our values when it comes to being an open trading economy".
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