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China Dealt Blow Over Future of Strategic Pacific Port.
China faces losing a strategic port in the Southern Hemisphere as Australia on Friday vowed to bring Darwin Port under its ownership again.
Landbridge Group, which was awarded a 99-year lease contract to operate Darwin Port in Australia‘s Northern Territory in 2015, told Newsweek that “the Port is not for sale.” Landbridge Group is reported to have connections to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese military.
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, plays a key role in America’s Indo-Pacific strategy. It is part of a U.S. maritime containment strategy that seeks to restrict China‘s access to the wider Pacific Ocean, as well as a member of Quad, a U.S.-led strategic alignment that also includes India and Japan.
Darwin Port is strategically positioned as Australia’s nearest port to Asia and is one of 20 “critical ports” in the country according to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018.
The issue of Darwin Port’s ownership comes after a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine made a stopover near the port last month. It is also reported that U.S. officials are “increasingly concerned” by the port lease agreement since the re-election of President Donald Trump.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Friday that his Labor government is looking for a private buyer to end the lease contract with Landbridge Group.
“We want it to be in Australian hands,” he said.
His defense minister, Richard Marles, on Monday refused to say whether the Trump administration had pressurized the Australian government to end the lease to the Chinese firm. He visited the U.S. in early February and met senior American officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Liberal-National Coalition, which is competing with the ruling Labor Party in the May 3 Australian federal election, announced on Saturday that it will immediately secure Darwin Port by returning it to an “Australian government-approved operator” if re-elected.
Citing the current geopolitical environment, it claimed that under the leadership of Peter Dutton, the coalition government would not permit the lease to any entity that is controlled by a foreign government, including any state-owned enterprise or sovereign wealth fund.
The port lease deal was awarded by the then-Northern Territory government and approved by the then-Malcolm Turnbull government.
Both Labor and the coalition pledged to directly intervene, if necessary, by exercising the power to acquire the lease and compensating Landbridge Group.
Terry O’Connor, non-executive director for Landbridge in Australia, told Newsweek in a statement on Saturday that the company has not been involved in any discussions with Australia’s federal government, opposition, or the Northern Territory government regarding the contract.
“Landbridge is disappointed that we are being used as a political football in the current election campaign,” the statement read, adding that “we are a positive contributor to the Northern Territory economy” and have employed almost 100 Darwin-based employees.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation 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.”
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday: “We’ve been consistently on the record for 10 years expressing our concern about the Liberals’ sale of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese-controlled entity.”
Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition said in a statement on Saturday: “If a private lease cannot be facilitated within six months of the process commencing, as a last resort, we will act to acquire the lease interest in the [Darwin] Port using the Commonwealth’s compulsory acquisition powers.”
Terry O’Connor, non-executive director for Landbridge in Australia, said in a statement to Newsweek on Saturday: “Landbridge considers the [Darwin] Port a long-term investment that has grown significantly under Landbridge’s ownership and has reported record operational performance this year. We expect this growth to continue in the future.”
It remains to be seen how the Chinese government will handle the ownership of Darwin Port after Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison announced plans to sell two ports at either end of the Panama Canal to a BlackRock-led consortium following pressure from the Trump administration.