Former United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has revealed that he was stunned that Australia blindsided the US on a decision to allow a Chinese company to lease the Port of Darwin. The Chinese State-owned firm is allegedly linked to the People's Liberation Army.

Armitage could not believe the Australian defence ministry went along with the deal. He said that he was further stunned to find out that apparently this did not come up in the Australia-US talks.

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According to AFR, his comments come in the midst of growing controversy about the $506 million deal between the Northern Territory Government and the Chinese company to lease the Port of Darwin for 99 years.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has conceded that the processes were not in place for the deal to be properly scrutinized by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

The Department of Defence has also raised issues by publicly saying that it has no security concerns about the deal, however, numerous sources say there is an alarm about the deal being undertaken behind closed doors.

Bill Shorten, the opposition leader, has written to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. He asked for a full briefing on the processes that were undertaken to evaluate the deal and its national security implications.

The US navy recently conducted a freedom of navigation patrol to provoke Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea. The Australian navy has about 1200 marines at Darwin and plans to raise the quota to 2500.

Armitage said that if Australia and the United States agree to have more naval activities, to him, the Darwin port would be the natural jumping off place.

The disagreement marks the growing dispute for Australia in harmonizing relations with its closest security ally, the US, and rising economic partner, China.

Armitage served as a top diplomat in the George W Bush administration and as a senior defence official for Asia. He said that he understood the Americans were very much surprised to learn of the Darwin port lease to the Chinese and that there were no advance discussions at a senior inter-government level. Armitage remains vigorous in Pentagon and think tank circles in Washington although he is a Republican. 

Defense Minister Julie Bishop and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne and met Ashton Carter the US Defence Secretary and John Kerry  the Secretary of State at a two-day AUSMIN event last month in Boston.

The Financial Review reported this week that the port issue was not raised. The Australian officials and their US counterparts apparently only heard about the deal upon returning from the annual AUSMIN talks.

On Monday, Commander, Bill Urban, US Defence Department spokesman, said he would not specifically comment on whether Australia had adequately involved in consultations with the Pentagon, saying that the US and Australia do discuss a wide range of topics.

Bill said that Australia alone determines its conditions for foreign investment projects related to its developments.

Defence expert John Lee said that Landbridge operates both petro-chemicals and port logistics; these are considered by Beijing to be crucial to its national interest.

Lee emphasized that there is no firm government control of all major Chinese companies in these sectors. He said there is collaboration if and when Beijing sees it in the national interest to do so. 

TagsUS Official, Port of Darwin, Scott Morrison, Australia Leases Port, Malcolm Turnbull, Bill Shorte, Huawei Technologies