CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has cancelled an official visit to India amid the ongoing bushfire crisis, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.
Morrison on Friday had a phone conversation with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, according to the report of the Australian.
The prime minister has called an emergency meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) to discuss escalating the military response to bushfires, which were expected to be exacerbated by catastrophic conditions forecast for Saturday.
“The role of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will become greater and greater in the days ahead, particularly when the things they do, the airlifting, the evacuations, the engineering support, the accommodation, the evacuation centers,” Morrison said on Friday.
“All of this (will) become more and more required as these fires get larger and larger.”
When asked if he has requested additional firefighting support from overseas, Morrison said “of course.”
Temperatures across Victoria and New South Wales (NSW), the two states that have been hardest-hit by fires in recent days, were expected to exceed 40 degrees centigrade on Saturday.
— BERNAMA
