US, UK and Australia relaunch AUKUS deal with nuclear submarines for Canberra

A trilateral summit that aims to strengthen the AUKUS alliance, with an eye on the growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.

The United States and Australia advanced the confirmation of the purchase of nuclear submarines by the Australian Government, within the framework of the security pact between Washington, London and Canberra.

This concludes an 18-month process since the three countries announced the defense pact in September 2021, in an attempt to curb Beijing’s preponderance in the region.

The ratification on the acquisition of the submersibles comes in the middle of the meeting on March 13 between the US president, Joe Biden, the British prime minister Rishi Sunak and the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in San Diego, California.

During the meeting, “the optimal route by which Australia will acquire nuclear submarines” will be announced, anticipated the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Richard Marles, on March 9.

This will build a future generation of submarines nuclear powered attack in the UK and Australia with US technology and support.

Washington would also intensify its port visits in Australia to provide the country with greater familiarity with atomic power technology before it has its own submarines, White House officials anticipated.

In this way, the three parties corroborate the agreement negotiated in secret and that unleashed friction against France, since the pact included the cancellation by the Australian Government of a contract of 66,000 million dollars for a fleet of conventional submarines built by Paris.

The diplomatic row unleashed within the Western alliance took months to mend.

The partnership now allows Australia access to submarines that are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered vessels, providing an important counterbalance to China’s military buildup in the area.

In addition, the Albanese Administration will procure up to five Virginia-class ships, as part of AUKUS, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

AUKUS, the strategic alliance to stop Chinese expansion

Several experts say Washington and its allies are seeking ways to roll back China’s growing power and influence, particularly its military buildup, pressure on Taiwan and deployments in the disputed South China Sea.

A fleet of nuclear-powered submarines would allow Australia to conduct longer patrols, giving the new alliance a stronger presence in the Indo-Pacific region.

A bold move by Canberra, given its economy’s reliance on China, which Beijing clearly views as a “provocation.”

The Chinese government has argued that AUKUS violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It maintains that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon State to a non-nuclear-weapon State is a “blatant” breach of the spirit of that convention.

However, Australian government officials dismiss the criticism, arguing that they are working to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, not nuclear weapons.

“The question is really how China chooses to respond because Australia is not backing down from what it feels it is doing in its own best interest here,” said Charles Edel, senior adviser and president of the Center for Strategy, Policy and International Studies, in Australia.

Military experts point out that The manufacture of the aforementioned submersibles will make Australia the seventh country with the capacity to operate a nuclear-powered submarine.

Canberra is also scheduled to bolster its fleet with British-designed submarines, local press reported.

The newspaper ‘Sydney Morning Herald’ published last Thursday, March 9, that in the long term Australia will add submersibles based on a new design from the United Kingdom, which would be assembled in the oceanic country and will have American technology.

Russia and China threaten to create “global danger and disorder”: Sunak

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed Monday to increase defense spending by around $6 billion over the next two years.

The decision to increase British military funding comes in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “historic challenge” posed by China, said ehe leader of Downing Street.

However, the increase is below what the top British military commands requested. The country currently invests a little more than 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in defense and Sunak stated that it will raise it to 2.5% in the long term, but the leaders of the military institution ask to scale it to 3%.

The announced figure also causes disappointment within the ruling Conservative Party, as many consider the announced figure to be “insufficient” to support Ukraine without leaving the UK defense vulnerable.

Even so, the prime minister noted that the additional money will partly go to replenishing British ammunition stocks sent to Kiev to defend against Moscow and part will be reserved for the construction of nuclear submarines, under the AUKUS framework.

“What could not be fully anticipated in 2021 was the pace of geopolitical change and the extent of its impact on the UK and our people (…) Since then, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the militarization of the energy and food supplies and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, combined with China’s more aggressive stance in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, threaten to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division,” Sunak said. .

But China stands out as one of London’s biggest concerns.

The Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, assured this March 13 before Parliament that the size and importance of China connect it “with almost all global problems.”

“We cannot be blind to the increasingly aggressive military and economic behavior of the Chinese Communist Party, including rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” he remarked.

With Reuters, AP and EFE