The United States and the United Kingdom will help Australia to equip itself with nuclear-powered submarines: part of a historic trilateral security partnership named with the acronym AUkUs. This was the announcement that arrived in the late American afternoon on live TV, with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson connected to the White House via large screens.
This is an important strategic pact that will bind the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia’s security for the future. But also a clear warning to China. Especially since the alliance is announced immediately after Joe Biden’s meeting with the leaders of the Quad: the quadrilateral of the Indo-Pacific democracies, formed by Japan, India and precisely the United States and Australia, is currently defined by the Americans as a real “Containment cordon” against Chinese expansion in the area that encompasses the Pacific Ocean, the China Sea and the Western Pacific.
The pact marks an aggressive and decidedly important step towards the Dragon. The United States, in fact, has so far shared nuclear propulsion technology with only one country: the United Kingdom, through an agreement of 1958, which, as the news site Axios writes, is “considered the cornerstone of the special relationship between two nations “. Now, the leaders announce, the new three-way alliance will establish new channels for sharing information. Together with joint efforts to develop advanced technologies, including in areas such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and, indeed, subsea capabilities.
Experts from the three states, Morrison explained, will work together for the next 18 months to identify the best way to allow Australia to build its nuclear submarines. On the other hand, Canberra had already tried it, through a troubled $ 90 billion agreement with France, which will probably now be abandoned. “Our governments and our brave armies have been side by side for literally over 100 years. In the trenches in World War I, island hopping in World War II, during the freezing Korean winters and blistering heat in the Persian Gulf, “Biden said emphatically speaking after the other two leaders. “Today we take another historic step to deepen and formalize cooperation between the three nations. Because we all recognize the imperative need to ensure long-term peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.” To then conclude: “We need to be able to address both the current strategic situation in the region and how it might evolve. The future of each of our nations, and of the world as a whole, depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific. , lasting and thriving for decades to come “.
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