Australia in San Diego on Monday unveiled plans to buy up to five US nuclear-powered submarines, then build a new model with US and British technology under a plan to bulk up Western muscle across the Asia-Pacific region, while officials in Canberra said yesterday that the deal was necessary to counter the biggest conventional military buildup in the region since World War II.
US President Joe Biden was hosting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at an event at a naval base in San Diego when the announcement was made.
Australian officials said the deal would cost up to US$245 billion over the next three decades and create 20,000 jobs.
Photo: AP
Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said it had made a huge diplomatic effort for months ahead of Monday’s announcement of the deal, including making more than 60 calls to regional and world leaders.
Australia had even offered to keep China in the loop, he said.
“We offered a briefing. I have not participated in a briefing with China,” Marles said.
Asked by reporters if China had rejected the briefing or responded at all, Marles replied: “I’m not aware of that response.”
Without specifically mentioning China, Marles said Australia needed to respond to the military buildup in the Pacific.
“A failure to do so would see us be condemned by history,” he said.
Marles said Australia intended to increase its military capabilities and to spend more on defense in the future, something it wanted to be transparent about.
“You know, our concern about other military buildups is that they happen in a manner which is opaque and where neighbors are left uneasy as to why it is occurring,” he said. “That is why we have gone to such an effort to make clear exactly why we are taking the steps that we’re taking.”
Albanese said the agreement “represents the biggest single investment in Australia’s defense capability in all of our history.”
Australia is buying three, and possibly up to five, Virginia-class boats as part of deal.
Under the AUKUS partnership, a future generation of submarines would be built in Britain, and in Australia with US technology and support.
Biden said that the deal “safeguarded stability in the Indo-Pacific for decades” and that the submarine alliance would bolster “the prospect of peace for decades to come.”
In Beijing, China warned that AUKUS risks setting off an arms race, and accused the three members of setting back nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
“We urge the US, the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, honor international obligations in good faith, and do more things that are conducive to regional peace and stability,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) told reporters.
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