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Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Why Nauru's $1billion deal with mysterious Chinese company might have breached treaty with Australia
Australia is working to confirm whether Nauru has breached a security treaty following a $1billion announcement with a Chinese company. Nauru must receive Australia's sign-off on any partnership, arrangement or engagement with a third nation when it comes to security, including critical infrastructure such as banking and telecommunications. Under the treaty, signed in December 2024, Australia would prop up Nauru's banking sector, provide $100 million in budget support and $40 million for policing in exchange for an effective veto right over other security agreements. Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said the Australian government was working with Nauru to determine whether a development deal with the China Rural Revitalisation and Development Corporation, signed on August 5, activated treaty obligations. 'That is a really important treaty for us, that helps position us as a security partner of choice with Nauru,' Mr Conroy said in Brisbane on Tuesday. The first part of the three-phase deal with the Chinese corporation covers renewable energy, the phosphate industry, marine fisheries and sea infrastructure. Mr Conroy said Australia wasn't opposed to development and economic assistance from other nations in the Pacific. 'We think other countries should be doing their fair share and investing in the Pacific. That's a good thing for the region,' he said. 'What we've been very clear is that every country in the world should respect the views of the Pacific Islands Forum, the leaders' consensus, which is that security should be provided by countries within the PIF.' Mr Conroy has stated China should play no security role in the Pacific. The jostling for influence between China and traditional partners like Australia in the Pacific has also been on display ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in the Solomon Islands in September. Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele has banned all development partners from attending after pressure from China to exclude Taiwan from the forum. The push to exclude Taiwan, which Beijing claims is part of its territory, split Pacific leaders, some of which still recognise Taiwan over China. Some forum nations and development partners have expressed that any attendance of Chinese officials at forum events is a red line. It followed an incident at the 2024 leaders meeting in Tonga where the leaders' communique was altered after China's Pacific envoy expressed anger at a provision referencing Taiwan. Mr Conroy said the decision to exclude dialogue partners by the Solomon Islands was 'unfortunate'. 'We think that every dialogue partner should have been invited to the PIF... whether that's China, Taiwan, the United States, United Kingdom, whoever, you name it,' he said. 'We think the 1992 status quo, the consensus around dialogue partner engagement should be maintained.' The invitation of development partners began in 1992 and includes Taiwan. Australia has been working to shore up its foothold in the Pacific by signing numerous security and defence co-operation treaties, some of which include exclusivity clauses. The pact with Papua New Guinea precludes any security presence from China. A defence pact allowing its citizens to serve in the Australian Defence Force is set to be inked at the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of its independence in Port Moresby in September. But a treaty with Kiribati has been more elusive, with negotiations effectively put on ice by the Maamau government. Mr Conroy declined to detail the status of the negotiations. 'We're engaging with all Pacific island nations on their interests and we've made it very clear that we're open to doing deals, negotiating beneficial arrangements for any Pacific nation that is interested in talking to us,' he said.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Mysterious Chinese billion-dollar proposed deal in Nauru sparks concern in Canberra
Australia has pressed Nauru for more detail about a claimed billion-dollar investment agreement that it has signed with a mysterious Chinese company, as federal government officials scramble to ensure the Pacific nation is not breaching a landmark treaty it signed with Australia just nine months ago. Last week, Nauru's government announced that its foreign minister, Lionel Aingimea, had signed a "phase 1 investment project proposal … valued at approximately AU$1 billion" with a Chinese company called the "China Rural Revitalisation and Development Corporation (CRRDC)". But the ABC has not been able to track down any information about the company, and Pacific analysts say that scale of investment doesn't seem plausible for Nauru, which has a population of just 12,000. Late last year, Australia signed a sweeping new treaty with Nauru, promising to provide ongoing budget and security support in return for effective veto power of decisions on national security. The pacific minister, Pat Conroy, said that Australian officials were checking that Nauru wasn't contemplating any investments which might breach the agreement. "That is a really important treaty for us that helps position us as the security partner of choice of Nauru." Article 5 of the treaty says Australia needs to "mutually agree" with any security arrangements Nauru makes, including on maritime security, defence, policing, border protection, cyber security, and some critical infrastructure. In its statement, Nauru said that the Phase 1 proposal would focus on "developing key sectors in Nauru", including "renewable energy, the phosphate industry, marine fisheries and sea infrastructure, water resource and environmental system, modern agriculture systems, eco-tourism, green transport system, health and cultural exchange platforms". It also said a "scoping team" from the company would come to Nauru in October to develop a "road up" for the investments. But Nauru's government hasn't provided any information beyond that statement. The ABC contacted Nauru on Tuesday to seek a response to Mr Conroy's comments, but it didn't immediately reply. The assistant minister for the Pacific, Nita Green, travelled to Nauru this week to open a Commonwealth Bank branch — delivering on an Australian government commitment under the treaty to ensure the Pacific nation wasn't left without a bank in the wake of Bendigo's withdrawal. But it is not clear if she raised the proposed investment in her meeting with Mr Aingimea and Nauru's president, David Adeang. One Australian government source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were "zero detail" available on the proposed deal, and they doubted it would ever transpire. Graeme Smith from the Australian National University also told the ABC that the proposal was "highly unlikely" to bring in a billion dollars to Nauru because its economy simply wasn't large enough to sustain such an investment. "I would put it up there with Manly winning the premiership this year." Dr Smith said it was possible that the announcement was "theatre" intended to impress voters ahead of a parliamentary election due next month. He said while the company's name echoed an important slogan within China, there "appears to be no record whatsoever of this company" anywhere in public documents. The ABC has also been unable to find any public statement from the CRRDC, or any definitive proof that the company exists. A search for the company's name — China Rural Revitalisation Development Corporation — on China's top commercial inquiry platform, Tianyancha, returned zero results. The company also doesn't seem to exist in other parts of the internet, with no website or any social media accounts immediately identifiable. There are a few companies with very similar names to China Rural Revitalisation and Development Corporation, including the China Rural Revitalisation Development Group Limited, and China Rural Revitalisation Development Centre. The former, China Rural Revitalisation Development Group Limited, was a private company opened in Hong Kong this February by a mainland Chinese national, Ling Rui. Hong Kong Business registration documents show that the ownership was transferred to another Chinese national, Wan Pengcheng, two months later after its establishment. The latter is a major domestic entity under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, mainly dealing with domestic developments in rural China. But the ABC has not been able to verify whether any of these companies are connected at all. Mr Conroy stressed on Tuesday afternoon that Australia wasn't opposed to foreign countries, including China, investing in Pacific. "We call on every country in the world to be an economic partner and development partner in the Pacific, we think other countries should be doing their fair share and investing in the Pacific," he said. "But what we've been very clear (on), is that every country in the world should respect the views of the Pacific Islands Forum, the leaders consensus, which is that security should be provided by countries within the PIF." The ABC has asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for more details about the representations it has made to Nauru, or whether it has gleaned more information about the proposal, but it has yet to responded.
