Australia has canceled a Belt and Road agreement signed by China and the state government of Victoria, creating tensions between Beijing and Canberra.
Victoria’s state signed a memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the Chinese government in October 2018. The BRI pretends to build new trade corridors between Europe and Asia, following the path of the historic silk road.
While other countries that joined the BRI have received huge benefits from Beijing, the deal between China and Victoria looks to be more at encouraging future investment and exchange.
In total, four deals were canceled, two with China and one each with Iran and Syria, all signed by the Victorian government.
“I consider these four arrangements to be inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy or adverse to our foreign relations,” Payne said in her statement.
China and Australia are already in the middle of a complicated diplomatic crisis, since Canberra’s call for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in April 2020.
Since then, millions of dollars of Australian imports have encountered difficulties to enter in the Chinese market, including timber, beef and some types of coal.
Thanks to that, in March, the Chinese government confirmed that Australian wine would face tariffs of up to 218% for five years due to claims of “dumping.
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