Australia, UK and U.S. Security Pact Consolidates U.S. Striving for Domination in Asia Pacific
Protest against AUKUS outside
constituency office of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in
Sydney, February 24, 2023.
The U.S., UK and Australia are consolidating the AUKUS security pact, which was established in the service of U.S./NATO aims of confronting China in 2021, under the high ideal of a so-called "free and open Indo-Pacific region."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has informed that on March 13, "President Biden, British Prime Minister Sunak, and Australian Prime Minister Albanese announced the optimal pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) under the Australia, United Kingdom, and United States (AUKUS) partnership. The AUKUS partnership represents a modernization of the longstanding alliances and partnerships between our countries, guided by a shared commitment to global prosperity, security, and stability. It deepens our longstanding diplomatic, security, and defence cooperation to meet the complex challenges of the future.
"The benefits of the AUKUS partnership will also extend across the Indo-Pacific region, which is home to more than half of the world's people and nearly two-thirds of the world's economy. It reinforces our collective strength by weaving our transatlantic and Indo-Pacific allies and partners closer together in support of the international system that underpins these objectives."
The "longstanding alliances and partnerships between our countries" includes the U.S.-led Five Eyes global espionage network and various levels of involvement with NATO. AUKUS itself was predicated on abruptly ending an agreement with France to provide Australia with new submarines. Then French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the new pact a "stab in the back."
While
France would have provided diesel-electric powered submarines,
Australia has now agreed to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the
U.S. at a cost of AUD$358 billion, that are harder to detect, have
longer range, faster speed and greater capacity for arms. A statement
by then Prime
Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton in 2021
pointed out the need to "enhance joint capability and interoperability"
and to acquire "the most advanced submarine technology available to
defend
Australia and its national interests." In other words,
the role Australia is
expected to play in supporting U.S. hegemonic aims in the region
requires a more lethal and clandestine type of submarine.
The AUKUS countries say that "Australia's modernization of its submarine fleet" will take several decades, beginning with the purchase of vessels built in the U.S. and then working with the UK to develop and build a new AUKUS-class of nuclear submarines.
Since AUKUS came into being, the Australian people have made clear that they do not accept that the government can dedicate hundreds of billions of dollars to arms producers for weapons to prepare for confrontation with China, at the expense of the people's security and well-being. Protests have been ongoing since AUKUS was founded, most recently on March 14, the day after the latest announcement.
Sydney, March 14, 2023
Former Australian Prime Minister Denounces AUKUS
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, on March 15 at the National Press Club, issued a scathing denunciation of AUKUS and the servility to the U.S. and UK of the Labor Party government of Anthony Albanese, decrying as well disinformation aimed at creating hysteria about China.
Among other things, Keating stated, "The Albanese government's complicity in joining with Britain and the United States in a tripartite build of a nuclear submarine for Australia under the AUKUS arrangements represents the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader, Billy Hughes, sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War One."
He stated the Australian government's use of the word sovereignty in these matters rings hollow, and that under AUKUS, Australia will foot the entire bill while the submarines "will forever remain within the operational remit of the United States or now, of Britain -- with technology owned and dependent on U.S. management -- in fact, buying a fleet of nuclear submarines which will forever be an adjunct to the Navy of the United States -- whether commanded by an Australian national or not."
Keating described Australia's reliance on Britain and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for its defence as "deeply pathetic," adding that the UK is "looking around for suckers" to create "global Britain [...] after that fool [Boris] Johnson destroyed their place in Europe."
"We're returning [to] Rishi Sunak, for God's sake -- Rishi Sunak -- for Australia to find our security in Asia. I mean, how deeply pathetic is that," he said, later elaborating the various ways in which he said the UK has abandoned military and economic relations with Australia over many decades.
As for the effectiveness of the subs, in Keating's pragmatic estimation, "No Australian nuclear submarine could have more than a token military impact against China, using as is planned, conventional weaponry." Thus "a plan to spend around $368 billion, for nuclear submarines to conduct operations against China in the most risky of conditions, is of little military benefit to anybody, even to the Americans."
As concerns China, he unequivocally stated that it poses a threat to neither the U.S. nor Australia.
"China does not present and cannot present as an orthodox threat to the United States. By orthodox, I mean an invasive threat," Keating said, adding:
"The United States is protected by two vast oceans, with friendly neighbours north and south, in Canada and Mexico. And the United States possesses the greatest arsenal in all human history. There is no way the Chinese have ever intended to attack the United States and it is not capable of doing so even had it contemplated it. So, why does the United States and its Congress insist that China is a 'threat'?
"The U.S. Defense Department's own annual report to Congress in late 2022 said 'the PRC aims to restrict the United States from having a presence on China's periphery.' In other words, China aims to keep U.S. navy ships off its coast. Shocking.
"Imagine how the U.S. would react if China's blue water navy did its sightseeing off the coast of California. The U.S. would be in a state of apoplexy."
Through AUKUS, "[Australia is] now part of a containment policy against China," he said. "The Chinese government doesn't want to attack anybody. They don't want to attack us [...] We supply their iron ore which keeps their industrial base going, and there's nowhere else but us to get it. Why would they attack? They don't want to attack the Americans [...] It's about one matter only: the maintenance of U.S. strategic hegemony in East Asia. This is what this is all about."
Just like in Afghanistan and Iraq, if it all goes wrong, he said, the U.S. "will just pull out and leave the mess behind. They will go back to San Diego, 10,000 km, and leave us with the consequences."
Response from China
On March 14, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, responded to a question from AFP about its position on AUKUS. He stated:
"We've repeatedly said that the establishment of the so-called AUKUS security partnership between the U.S., the UK and Australia to promote cooperation on nuclear submarines and other cutting-edge military technologies is a typical Cold War mentality. It will only exacerbate the arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and hurt regional peace and stability. Peace-loving countries have expressed grave concern and firm opposition. The latest joint statement issued by the U.S., the UK and Australia shows that the three countries, for their own geopolitical interests, have totally disregarded the concerns of the international community and gone further down the wrong and dangerous path.
"Nuclear submarine cooperation between the U.S., the UK and Australia involves the transfer of large amounts of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from nuclear weapon states to a non-nuclear weapon state, which poses a serious nuclear proliferation risk and violates the purpose and object of the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty]. The U.S., the UK and Australia said they are committed to set the highest nuclear non-proliferation standard, this is nothing but high-sounding rhetoric to deceive the world. In essence, it is a move to coerce the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Secretariat into making a safeguards exemption arrangements, which would seriously undermine the authority of the IAEA. China is firmly opposed to this.
"We need to point out once again that nuclear submarine cooperation bears on the integrity, efficacy and authority of the NPT. The safeguards issues related to AUKUS concern the interests of all member states of the IAEA and should be jointly discussed and decided by all member states through transparent, open and inclusive intergovernmental process. Pending the consensus reached by all IAEA member states, the U.S., the UK and Australia should not proceed with relevant cooperation, and the IAEA Secretariat should not engage with the three countries on the safeguards arrangements for their nuclear submarine cooperation.
"It should be stressed that the Asia-Pacific is the most dynamic and fastest growing region in the world. This doesn't come easily. China urges the three countries to heed the call of the international community and regional countries, discard the outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow geopolitical mindset, earnestly fulfill their international obligations and refrain from doing anything that undermines regional and world peace and stability."
(With files from U.S. State Department, Australian Government, Consortium News, PRC Foreign Ministry. Photos: Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition.)
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 5 - March 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53056.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca