The new military agreement announced Wednesday evening during a videoconference between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom is called “AUKUS”. Among the first planned initiatives, that of supplying Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, which is already creating tensions with France and China.
China immediately made it known that it did not appreciate the new agreement and the statements made on it by US President Joe Biden, who allegedly spoke of a way “to face the 21st century and its rapidly evolving threats”. In fact, the cooperation pact is part of that series of maneuvers which, more or less explicitly, aim at containing Chinese expansion through alliances in the Indo-Pacific area.
Unlike those normally used by Australia, the new submarines, obtained thanks to technology from the United States and the United Kingdom, will have an engine powered by a nuclear reactor. It is a type currently owned by only six countries in the world – the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China and India – which allows you to travel greater distances in less time and to be more difficult to trace by radar. The Australian Navy would, therefore, be able to operate more easily in the South China Sea, an area of territorial disputes between China and other countries.
The Chinese embassy in the United States called the deal the result of a “cold war mentality and ideological bias.”
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian instead considers him “extremely irresponsible”, given that “cooperation between the United States, Great Britain and Australia on nuclear submarines seriously undermines regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race and undermines efforts non-proliferation international organizations “.
Nuclear submarines are only the first step in an agreement that provides for close collaboration on other strategic issues, such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. But this initial announcement was enough to also determine a break in relations with France, from which the country was historically supplied with submarines.
“We have learned brutally, from a statement by President Biden that the contract concluded between France and the Australians will no longer be made, and that the United States will propose a nuclear offer, the contents of which are unknown, to the Australians. It is something that is not done between allies “said Jean-Yves Le Drian, who in 2016 – when he held the position of Minister of Defense – had completed the” contract of the century “, guaranteeing France 56 billion euros in exchange for the supply of 12 conventional submarines, supplied by the French Naval Group.
Breach of the “contract of the century” by Australia: “I am angry today, it cannot be done between allies”, declares Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Foreign Affairs
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The current Minister of Defense, Florence Parly, asks for clarification: “We are clearheaded about the way the United States treats its allies and partners. We will study all the ways to try to limit the consequences for Naval Group as much as possible “, but adds” The Australians tell us how they intend to exit the agreements “.