AUKUS to put lid on China aggro
Clark Cooley says a new alliance behind Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine deal will forge regional peace, prosperity
THE new military alliance between Australia, the UK and the US, known as AUKUS, represents a seismic shift in the resistance to Chinese expansionism.
The security situation in the Indo-Pacific has been deteriorating rapidly since Chinese aggression to Australia and other nations in the region.
China’s open toxicity to Australia has been escalating for years, culminating bluntly in the infamous “14 grievances” list produced by the Communist regime late last year.
The “high-school bully” style list was an obvious attempt to force Australia into a backdown on issues, including support for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan, sovereignty and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, and advocacy against Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
From the outset it was clear: any nation who would abide by such a list would be ceding its sovereignty to the People’s Republic. The rebuke from Australian officials was thankfully swift.
The trade sanctions Beijing has imposed on Australia in response to these alleged grievances, both before and after the list’s publication, such as punitive tariffs on Australian barley, beef, and wine, and the ban on coal imports, only shows China’s fickleness to criticism of any kind.
Australia has not been the only nation to feel China’s hostility, but it has shown some of the strongest resistance of this type of aggression globally.
AUKUS represents our most significant pushback to this, by building on the strong historic alliance between like-minded nations , and our joint commitment to uphold the shared values of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law — an alliance forged in battle and tested in every corner of the earth for over a century in the struggle against tyranny.
It’s a significant step-up in the formal relationship between the nations and builds on existing military and security agreements.
The headline feature of AUKUS is the delivery of support, technology, and capability for Australia to build its first fleet of nuclear submarines. This capability should not be taken lightly. Australia will be just the seventh nation to operate nuclear-powered subs. The US will share its proprietary nuclear propulsion technology, the second only nation to gain access, since the UK in 1958. This will upgrade Australian maritime defences beyond what was planned under the former French submarine plan, giving Aussie submariners a superior weapon.
Beyond submarines, AUKUS will deliver greater joint capabilities and interoperability between three nations which already share a great deal of military synergy but will focus on the burgeoning and important areas of cyber, artificial intelligence and quantum technologies.
For the three nations directly involved in AUKUS, the new relationship is a strengthening of existing ties, and for other nations in the Indo-Pacific, it has been interpreted as a renewed commitment to upholding international law and norms of national sovereignty.
It’s a partnership that has been welcomed by other regional nations, including Japan and India. These two are important to Australia and the US due to their involvement in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as “the Quad”.
Like AUKUS, the Quad is a chance for like-minded nations to stand strong on shared values. The strength of this partnership was shown recently at the first face-to-face meeting of leaders of Government in Washington DC last week.
The summit of leaders provided an alternative narrative on economic growth in the region. The PM rightly stressing the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific, to counter China’s command and control narrative that places it at the centre of future economic prosperity.
This economic messaging will be important to emphasise as other nations in the region, and globally, look to how they position themselves.
The objective is a free, open, prosperous, rulesbased and inclusive IndoPacific. That mission will provide a long-term block against Chinese aggression, and support for peace and prosperity.