China's threats to economic collusion over Aussies' demand for pandemic investigation 'unacceptable'

Australia's demands for an investigation into the origins of coronavirus as well as a review of the World Health Orgsation (WHO) has drawn daggers between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chinese President Xi Jinping, raising threats to further squeeze the island nation economically.

In an exclusive interview to StratNews Global's Nitin Gokhale and Parul Chandra, Australia's High Commissioner designate to India Barry O'Farrell explained why his country was seeking a probe into the origins of pandemic and a revamp of the WHO.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasising on the need to strengthen WHO at the G20 leader's summit in March, Farrell said if an orgsation has to be kept effective, then checks and balances are necessary to avert such a crisis in future.

"That is why Australia has argued for an independent review in appropriate time to look into the genesis and spread of the disease," he added.

"Clearly, not everybody likes the idea but we need to strengthen our global institutions to seek transparency," said O'Farrell.

Further referring to Australia's close economic linkages with China and how Beijing's threats are not helping the relationship, the diplomat said: "We have a very beneficial relationship but it is not acceptable to threaten our economic collusion over a call for an independent and transparent review of a body that is designed to maintain the world's health."

This is a time to promote cooperation and not providing discord and cover things up, said O'Farrell.

Reports said the debate about Australia's over-dependence on China ramped up recently after interruption of supply chains during China's coronavirus shutdowns in January.

That prompted Australia to launch a national inquiry into the 'vulnerabilities in Australia's economy to external impacts' in late February, a report by the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney said.

( With inputs from ANI )