New bill gets introduced in the Australian parliament to stop the Chinese Belt and Road alongside other projects

Canberra: – Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison has taken a new step to stop the agreements and projects, going against the Australian interests and foreign policy. In the next few days, a new bill will be presented in the Australian parliament. It has a provision to review the agreements, signed by various provinces and educational institutes, with foreign governments. More than 40 agreements signed with China are likely to be reviewed and they include an agreement signed by the Victoria Province under the Belt and Road initiative. Only two days ago, senior Chinese officials accused Australia of betrayal over the Coronavirus issue.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison justified the new bill saying that the government’s most important objective is securing Australian interests. Country’s foreign policy and cooperation in other sectors also have to be according to this. It necessitates action if any country is signing agreements with the provincial governments threatening the sovereignty and rocking the provisions in the foreign policy. Australian Foreign Minister claimed that this bill becomes important as there are no guidelines, as to what agreements can the provinces, cities and other government enterprises, from Australia, sign with foreign governments.

Although the bill speaks about foreign governments, indications have been given by the government sources and even the media, that the target will be agreements with the Chinese government. The media informed that 100 agreements signed with 30 countries will come under scrutiny after the parliament clears the bill. These include nearly 48 agreements with China alone. Two years ago, the Australian Victoria province, signed a major agreement with China under the Belt and Road initiative. The Victoria province did not scrap the agreement even after objections raised by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Australian government. But it is being said that this will be the first agreement to be hit, once the bill is passed.

For the last few years, the Australian intelligence agencies and think tanks are warning that the Chinese interference in various sectors in Australia is increasing excessively. The actions against China stared after the government became a target for criticism over this issue. In the last four years, two important bills have been passed against China and the upcoming bill is the third in the list. The first two bills attempted to stop political donations and foreign investments.

The Chinese government had spewed a lot of fire against both these bills. Efforts to hit the Australian trade and tourism sector also were made, to prevent an Australian action against China. But Prime Minister Morrison has demonstrated, through this new bill, that he does not pay any heed to the pressures applied by China.