America exerts pressure, and the Australian Prime Minister vows to reclaim the Darwin Port leased to a Chinese company.
According to The Australian, Australian Prime Minister Albanese said that the Australian government is striving to reclaim the Darwin Port leased to the China's Landbridge Group.
Albanese promised "to bring the Darwin Port back under Australian control." He said, "My government plans to cooperate with existing and future port operators as well as the Northern Territory (an Australian self-governing territory) government to achieve this goal." He pointed out that when he was the leader of the opposition party, he criticized the previous government's decision to lease the port to a Chinese company.
Albanese emphasized that the Australian government is prepared to take all measures to reclaim the port. He said, "If we can reach an agreement and transfer ownership back to Australia without federal government intervention, we will do so, but we are also prepared for compulsory acquisition."
The China's Landbridge Group stated that the Darwin Port will not be sold.
In the 2022 election campaign, Albanese promised to review the terms of the Darwin Port lease and terminate it if it does not align with Australia's interests. However, in October 2023, the Australian government led by Albanese announced that it would no longer seek to terminate the agreement with the Landbridge Group. The relevant statement noted that "there is no need to modify or repeal the Darwin Port lease."
The Landbridge Group acquired a 99-year lease for the Darwin Port (located on the northwest coast of the Australian continent) in 2015 for 506 million Australian dollars (approximately 320 million US dollars). According to the lease terms, the company must modernize and expand port infrastructure at its own expense, construct berths and unloading docks, and deepen the port channel.
After the lease was signed in 2015, the U.S. government urged the Australian government to reconsider this decision and expressed concerns about the presence of a Chinese company near the U.S. naval military base. After Albanese came to power in May 2022, he promised to abolish the lease. However, after a detailed analysis of the lease terms, the government committee "found no reason to terminate the lease on national security grounds."
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829088820470793/
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