Name: Coronavirus Australia: Wuhan lab dossier lashed by former foreign ministers
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Coronavirus Australia: Wuhan lab dossier lashed by former foreign ministers

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'Blatant interference': Former Australian foreign ministers lash Wuhan dossierWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementAustralia has secured the emphatic support of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in its push for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus as the United States retreats on claims it has evidence the disease started in a Chinese laboratory.Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently discussed the inquiry with Mr Johnson and has identified two mechanisms at the World Health Assembly that could lead the investigation. Australia will use a European Union motion to zero in on China's handling of the initial outbreak and the global health response. there were rising suspicions within the Australian government and intelligence services that the US embassy in Canberra had leaked a western government dossier that tied the virus to a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.Senior sources said the research, reported by News Corp Australia on Saturday, contained no intelligence and was made up of publicly available material, including news reports. Australia has maintained that the most likely scenario is the .Former Australian Labor foreign ministers Gareth Evans and Bob Carr said the episode showed the importance of maintaining independent intelligence from the US."Pushing the Wuhan lab line in defiance of all intelligence assessments is just another nail in the coffin of US international credibility - and it's crucial for our own that we don't get further sucked in to Trump's political agenda," said Professor Evans, who is the President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group.Professor Carr said there should be a comprehensive inquiry into the leak of the dossier."It seems the US embassy gave a confected report to an Australian newspaper inflating baseless claims that the COVID19 virus was hatched in a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan," he said.Advertisement"The report, published in Australia, was fed into Fox News commentary and used by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to stoke an allegation even flimsier than the [weapons of mass destruction] in the context of the Iraq war."If that is true it is blatant embassy interference in Australian politics. One can only imagine the reaction if it had of been attempted by the Chinese embassy."The US embassy declined to comment when approached about the suspicions held by Australian intelligence sources on Wednesday. from earlier claims that there was "enormous evidence" linking the lab to the outbreak. "We don't have certainty," he said. "We're all trying to get to clarity."China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying had urged Mr Pompeo to show any evidence the US had on Wednesday night. "Mr Pompeo cannot present any evidence because he hasn't gotten any," she said.Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove said the story confirmed why an independent and impartial inquiry would be in the interests of all countries including China and Australia."It would subject to proper scrutiny all the various conspiracy theories including that the virus originated in a Chinese lab," he said."And it might also take some of the heat out of the blame game between Washington and Beijing, and make the issue more procedural than rhetorical."The US retreat could help Mr Morrison and an eclectic group of leaders known as "the first movers" to diplomatically map out a global way out of the crisis as other major economies struggle to get on top of the pandemic.The heads of state have identified themselves as having responded early and effectively to the crisis, flattening the curve of the virus.They include Australia, Israel, Austria, Greece, Denmark and the Czech Republic.The group has met twice and Singapore will join the group for the first time on Thursday night.Mr Morrison wrote to G20 leaders on Thursday outlining six key points required for the global response to coronavirus including giving the World Health Organisation greater inspection powers, acknowledging the more than 250,000 deaths already caused by the pandemic and establishing an obligation to learn from the crisis so that governments can do more to protect their people.Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day's crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald's newsletter and The Age's .Log in, or to save articles for later. is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. is political correspondent for The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age.Advertisement

'Blatant interference': Former Australian foreign ministers lash Wuhan dossierWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementAustralia has secured the emphatic support of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in its push for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus as the United States retreats on claims it has evidence the disease started in a Chinese laboratory.Prime Minister Scott...

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Eryk Bagshaw

Anthony Galloway

The Sydney Morning Herald - Australia's leading news source. Independent. Always.

Coronavirus Australia: Wuhan lab dossier lashed by former foreign ministers

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