Diplomatic tensions inevitably linked to the war in Ukraine. The Australian government will oppose the construction of a new Russian embassy near Parliament in Canberra, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Thursday, June 15, citing a national security risk.
“The government has received very clear security advice about the risk posed by a new Russian presence so close to parliament,” Anthony Albanese told reporters. Russia currently leases a plot near Parliament in Canberra. The Australian government has already tried, without success, to cancel this lease, signed for the first time in 2008.
The head of the Australian government announced that after having explored all possible legal avenues in vain, new laws would be passed by Parliament to block the construction of the Russian embassy on this land. “We are moving quickly to ensure that the leased site does not become an official diplomatic presence,” the prime minister said.
For the Australian Minister of the Interior, Clare O’Neil, the new embassy that Russia wishes to build constitutes an obvious threat to the national security of the country.
“The main problem with the proposed second Russian embassy in Canberra is its location,” she said. “The location is directly adjacent to the Houses of Parliament,” said Clare O’Neil. The current Russian embassy is in the Griffith district in the south of the city.