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Australia wants international probe into coronavirus origins, prompting backlash from China
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison discussed an investigation during phone calls with other leaders overnight
- ‘Certain Australian politicians are keen to parrot what those Americans have asserted and simply follow them in staging political attacks on China,’ embassy statement said
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Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought support for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic in phone calls with US President Donald Trump, and the German and French leaders overnight, the government said on Wednesday.
Australia’s push for an independent review of the origins and spread of the pandemic, including the response of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has drawn sharp criticism from China, which has accused Australian lawmakers of taking instructions from the United States.
The new coronavirus is believed to have emerged in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has spread around the world, infecting some 2.3 million people and leaving some 160,000 dead.
Morrison said on Twitter he had “a very constructive discussion” with Trump on the two nation’s health responses to Covid-19 and the need to get economies up and running.
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“We also talked about the WHO & working together to improve the transparency & effectiveness of the international responses to pandemics,” he tweeted.
Morrison also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron by phone, his office said. The White House has been fiercely critical of China and the WHO, and has withdrawn US funding from the United Nations agency.
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Senior Australian lawmakers have also called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, and questioned Beijing’s transparency over a pandemic now paralysing the world.
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