ANKARA
Australia is supplying minerals to China vital for Beijing's hypersonic missiles and nuclear programs, according to Australian local broadcaster ABC News.
Chinese companies are the largest shareholders in two Western Australia mines, where the Australian government also gave one of them AUD $160 million (approximately $103 million) as a soft loan.
According to the report, Australia supplies zirconium, a little-known critical mineral, to China, as Canberra is the world's largest producer and supplies China with 41% of its imports.
Australia continues to supply raw materials essential to China’s military expansion, even as it positions itself as a key strategic partner of the US in efforts to reduce Beijing’s dominance over the processing of rare earths and critical minerals, the broadcaster reported.
Last month, Australia and the US signed a critical minerals and rare earths agreement during Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to the White House, which includes plans for projects worth a total of up to $8.5 billion.
The White House said the two governments plan to jointly invest over $3 billion in critical mineral projects in the next six months, aiming to unlock an estimated $53 billion worth of resources.
On Tuesday, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess, in an annual address detailing the spy agency's assessment, "didn't talk about China like he had in the past."
He said that previously, when he named China, Beijing complained about it to Australian government figures.
“(I) will continue to call them out when I need to,” he said, explaining that "this evening I didn't, primarily because I was talking about things that tear at our social fabric. And at the extreme end of that, that isn't China, although we do have some concerns there too."
Burgess also claimed the spy agency had assessed there was a "realistic possibility" of at least three nations "willing and capable of conducting lethal targeting" in Australia.