CANBERRA: Australian special envoy and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a trade agreement between his nation and India would signal the “democratic world’s tilt faraway from ChinaAbbott visited New Delhi last week as Australia’s special trade envoy for India because the Australian government gives priority to sealing a bilateral trade deal.
In an opinion piece likely to anger Beijing that was published within the Australian newspaper on Monday, Abbott said the “answer to almost every question about China is India With the world’s other emerging superpower becoming more belligerent almost by the day, it’s in everyone’s interests that India take its rightful place among the nations as quickly as possible,” Abbott wrote.
“Because trade deals are about politics the maximum amount as economics, a swift deal between India and Australia would be a crucial sign of the democratic world’s tilt faraway from China, also as boosting the long-term prosperity of both our countries,” Abbott added.
Abbott was prime minister when China and Australia finalised a bilateral trade deal which took effect in 2015. He also hosted a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping a year earlier Relations have since soured over issues including Australia banning Chinese telecom giant Huawei from major communications infrastructure projects, outlawing covert foreign interference in Australian politics and calling for an independent investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic Abbott accused Beijing of “capricious boycotts” of Australian exports including coal, barley, wine and seafood that demonstrated Chinese use of trade as a “strategic weapon The basic problem is that China’s daunting power may be a consequence of the free world’s decision to ask a communist dictatorship into global trading networks,” Abbott said.
“China has exploited the West’s goodwill and illusion to steal our technology and undercut our industries; and, within the process, become a way more powerful competitor than the old Soviet Union ever was, because it’s now a first-rate economy that’s rapidly developing a military to match; and spoiling for a fight over Taiwan, a pluralist democracy of 25 million that’s case in point there is no totalitarian gene within the Chinese DNA,” Abbott added.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia didn’t answer an invitation for discuss Monday Negotiations between India and Australia on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement began in 2011 but were suspended in 2015.
India is especially concerned by freer trade Australian farm exports. New Delhi’s demands for fewer restrictive visas for Indian workers may be a major detail for Australia.
Australia’s current Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his counterpart Narendra Modi last year upgraded the bilateral relationship with a raft of agreements that strengthened defense ties and committed both nations to expanding trade.
Abbott visited India last week to “propel our economic relationship to its full potential, to the mutual advantage of the Indian and Australian people,” Australian diplomat to India Barry O’Farrell said during a statement.