Australia decides to continue 99-year lease of Darwin port with China

The Australian federal government has decided not to cancel a Chinese company's 99-year lease on the strategically important Darwin Port, despite Washington's concerns about the risk of spying on US and Australian forces stationed nearby.

The decision follows a review of the port lease between the Northern Territory government and Landbridge Industry Australia, a subsidiary of Shandong Landbridge Group based in Rizhao, Shandong Province, China, in a deal worth A$506 million ($390 million) in 2015.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said on October 20 that the review found that current monitoring and management measures were adequate to manage risks to critical infrastructure such as the Port of Darwin.

“Australians can be confident that their safety will not be compromised, while ensuring that Australia remains a competitive destination for foreign investment,” the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said in a statement.

The decision comes ahead of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese flying to Washington, DC next week to meet with US President Joe Biden. Mr Albanese is also set to soon become the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years.

Landbridge said in a statement that it hopes the decision will put an end to security concerns.

But Neil James, chief executive of the Australian Defence Association, a think tank, said the only way to avoid the risk was to not have a lease in the first place and if it was already in place, the government should “bite the bullet and cancel it”.

World - Australia decides to continue 99-year lease of Darwin port with China — A US Air Force bomber lands at a base in Darwin, Northern Australia, in 2018. Photo: Sydney Morning Herald

Eight years ago, according to local authorities, Landbridge outbid 32 other potential private investors for the aging port infrastructure in northern Australia, where three years earlier US Marines had begun annual rotations as part of Washington's pivot to Asia.

A month after the deal was announced, then-US President Barack Obama criticized then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a meeting in the Philippines for a lack of consultation with the US.

Mr Obama told Mr Turnbull that Washington should have been “warned about issues like this” and asked that it not happen again, The Australian Financial Review reported.

Mr Turnbull told reporters that privatising the port was no secret. “It’s no secret that Chinese investors are interested in investing in infrastructure in Australia,” he said.

“And under our laws, the Department of Defence or the federal government can intervene and take control of infrastructure like this in circumstances where it is considered necessary for defence purposes,” Mr Turnbull added.

The Australian Defence Department and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation have since publicly supported the contract, which was signed in 2015, a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Australia at a time when bilateral relations were at a peak.

Sino-Australian relations have plummeted since then, although there have been signs of stabilisation since the election of the current Australian Government.

An Australian parliamentary committee recommended in 2021 that the then-government consider restoring Australian control of the port if the lease was contrary to the national interest. The Australian government responded by holding the aforementioned review and found no grounds to terminate the lease.

But the Foreign Investment Review Board – the federal regulator of foreign ownership – has won new powers to block similar deals in the future .

Minh Duc (According to The Independent, Al Jazeera)

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