Australia warned US could “disconnect” from nation over Victoria’s Belt and Road deal
The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that his country could “simply disconnect” from Australia if Victoria’s trade deal with Beijing threatened its telecommunication security.
On Sunday morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the state government should never have signed up to China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The scheme is a global infrastructure push aimed to recreate the Silk Road for the 21st century, involving new ports, highways and railways across the globe.
In an interview with Sky News on the same day, Pompeo said the agreement could impact his nation’s Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership with Australia.
“I don’t know the nature of those projects precisely,” Pompeo said.
“To the extent they have an adverse impact on our ability to protect telecommunications from our private citizens or security networks for our defence and intelligence communities we will simply disconnect, we will simply separate.
“I suppose Victoria has some rights that it can undertake but every citizen of Australia should know that every one of those Belt and Road projects needs to be looked at incredibly closely.”
Several hours later US ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse issued a damage control statement saying he wanted to “set the record straight”.
Culvahouse said Pompeo was asked to address a “very remote hypothetical” and was unfamiliar with the details of the BRI agreement.
“The United States has absolute confidence in the Australian Government's ability to protect the security of its telecommunications networks and those of its Five Eyes partners,” Culvahouse said.
“We are not aware that Victoria has engaged in any concrete projects under BRI, let alone projects impinging on telecommunications networks, which we understand are a federal matter.”
The Victorian Government spokesperson said the BRI was about creating opportunities for businesses and local jobs “that will be more important than ever as we rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic”.
“Telecommunications regulation is the responsibility of the Commonwealth government,” she said.
“Victoria has not, and will not in the future, agree to telecommunications projects under the BRI.”