Victoria Falls Under Pressure to Release Details of Belt and Road Deal with China

The Victorian government has bowed down to the pressure exerted on it by the State government and has released details of the agreement with China over the Belt and Road initiative. Experts in Australia have warned that the decision by the Victorian government to sign a deal with China could be unconstitutional and could have significant repercussions in the future.

The state of Victoria is perhaps the first one in Australia to reach and sign an agreement with the president of China Xi Jinping. The state signed an agreement with the Chinese premier over the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, by China. The One Belt and Road Initiative would revamp trade across the world, and promises to be the next biggest thing happening around us.

The four-page memorandum of understanding between the two governments states that both China and Victoria will work together in a long-term partnership to inject new momentum into the BRI project. The memorandum also entails details of common development and how working on the project will cumulatively promote trade, connectivity, finance, people communication and infrastructure.

The document also states that businesses on both sides will also develop quite a long-tem partnership, which will be assisted by unimpeded trade and relation. The agreement is believed to be legally binding upon both entities for the coming 5 years.

While being part of the BRI could bring a lot of good news for the Australian state of Victoria, the Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Peter Jennings is alarmed that the outcome of this deal might be a bit disastrous. Peter Jennings thinks that Victoria has slightly overstepped the line with the agreement, and should have followed the lead of the federal government, when they didn’t sign on the agreement.

“My take on it is it was wrong for a state government to sign something like this – it might even be unconstitutional,” Jennings said to Australian media. He further added, “It may not be tested, of course, but it strikes me as something the Victorians would have been wiser not to agree to.”

“They didn’t get the answer they wanted from one jurisdiction … so they went to another one, really with the effect of undermining the federal government’s position,” Jennings said.

Jennings further mentioned that he hoped other states in the country wouldn’t take the example of Victoria and would be discouraged. “Frankly, there is a bit of a trend at the moment for state leaders to go over to China with dollar signs rolling in their eyes, with how much money they can make from engagement,” he said.

While the outcry in Australia is justified, Victoria’s agreement with China will only turn out to be profitable and effective for the country and state. This will eventually lead to better things for both the BRI and the Federation State of Australia.