Australia plans to wrest control of a Chinese-owned port in the country’s north after a national election next month as concerns grow over a more assertive Chinese military presence.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton will take immediate action to bring the Port of Darwin under Australian control or into a model that will give greater assurance about the operator within six months if elected, he said on Saturday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese late on Friday made a similar commitment.
The Northern Territory government originally approved the 99-year lease of the port to Chinese company Landbridge Group in 2015, a decision criticised by then US President Barack Obama. Security concerns have since grown after reports the operator was facing financial difficulties and as Chinese warships conducted live fire exercises in international waters off Australia’s eastern seaboard.
“A mistake was made many years ago in relation to the lease,” Dutton told reporters. “We live in the most precarious period since the end of World War II, since 1945, and I think it’s appropriate that we take the actions that meet the pressures and the concerns and the threats of the time.”
The Port of Darwin is a strategic asset on Australia’s northern coastline and is home to a base for thousands of US marines. Albanese said the port needed to be in “Australian hands.”
A Darwin port sign in English and Chinese characters. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the port needs to be in “Australian hands.” Photo: Shutterstock
“We will enter into negotiations to do that,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation late on Friday. “That is what we’ve been doing informally through potential buyers up to this point already, and if it reaches a point where the Commonwealth needs to directly intervene, then we’d be prepared to do that.”
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