Australia’s nuclear deal with US
BEIJING yesterday slammed a new US alliance with Australia and Britain, under which Canberra will acquire nuclear submarine technology, as an “extremely irresponsible” threat to regional stability.
The agreement “seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a press briefing.
US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday the US and Britain would share highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology with Australia, a major departure from past policy and a direct challenge to China in its Pacific neighbourhood. The alliance is seen as a bid to offset China’s growing economic and military reach in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The export of highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology by the United States and Britain to Australia once again proves that they use nuclear exports as a tool of geopolitical games and adopt double standards, which is extremely irresponsible,” Zhao said.
He said the deal gave regional countries “reason to question Australia’s sincerity in abiding by its nuclear non-proliferation commitments”.
He urged the Western allies to “abandon their outdated Cold War zero-sum thinking” or risk “shooting themselves in the foot”.
Biden made the announcement alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who joined the president virtually, as they unveiled a new three-way defense alliance, which will be known as AUKUS.
Britain is the only other nation to share US nuclear submarine propulsion technology, an agreement dating back decades and aimed largely at countering the old Soviet Union.
“We all recognise the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term,” Biden said. None of the three leaders mentioned China in their remarks, but the objective of the new alliance was clear: challenging the country’s growing economic and military influence. The effort comes amid rising tensions with China over a range of issues including military ambitions and human rights, and Biden has made it clear he views China as the country’s most significant global competitor.
The president spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week. Biden initiated that call, but one administration official said that the Australian submarine plan was not discussed “in any specific terms”.
Nuclear-powered submarines are faster, more capable, harder to detect and potentially much more lethal than conventional-powered submarines. The Chinese navy is thought to possess six nuclear attack submarines and many more conventional ones, with plans to expand the nuclear-powered fleet over the next decade.
The US sails its own nuclearpowered submarines in the Indo-Pacific region, and those and other US ships regularly engage in cat-andmouse interactions with Chinese vessels that US commanders fear could lead to an unintentional conflict. The navy’s three most powerful nuclear submarines were all deployed to the Pacific region over the summer. US defence officials have warned of a Chinese naval build-up that challenges US navigation in what the US and its allies say is international water.
US officials sidestepped questions about what message the US was sending to its rival with the new partnership. “This partnership is not aimed or about any one country,” one senior official said. “It’s about advancing our strategic interests… and promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
The new alliance also torpedoed Australia’s conventional submarine deal with France, which had been personally backed by President Emmanuel Macron. Morrison confirmed yesterday that Australia would not proceed with the deal. Biden, in an attempt to placate Paris, said France was a “key partner and ally” in the Asia-Pacific region. France’s foreign minister was nonetheless enraged, branding the agreement “a stab in the back”.
“I’m very angry today, and bitter... This is not something allies do to each other,” Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The submarine contract with France was worth around Aus$50 billion (31 billion euros, $36.5 billion) at the time of signing.
In joint statement, the French minister of foreign affairs and minister of the armed forces said the decision was “contrary to the letter and spirit of the co-operation that prevailed between France and Australia”.
“The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence,” the leaders said.
One Australian politician is calling for an inquiry into the agreement, saying it raised questions around nuclear non-proliferation.
“If it’s a US submarine, they have highly enriched uranium in their reactors and that creates a proliferation issue in terms of Australia standing up saying, no one should have this sort of fuel available to them,” said Australian Senator Rex Patrick, a former submariner in the Australian navy.
Nuclear propulsion is different from nuclear weaponry, and Morrison said Australia remains committed to remaining a non-nuclear weapons state. But some experts worry about how the new arrangement will impact the global nuclear power landscape.
“I think if Australia… builds nuclear-powered submarines and removes nuclear material from safeguards, it sets a very damaging precedent,” said James Acton, the co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Acton said he was concerned about how Iran would react and whether the country will attempt to skirt safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by saying it is using nuclear material to build a submarine.
Before the announcement, Acton said he would expect China and Russia to oppose any efforts by Iran to take such actions, but the calculus could change after the US shares nuclear propulsion technology with Australia.
“I do believe the damage to the nuclear non-proliferation regime will … outweigh the defence benefits of Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines,” he said.
The US said it had informed the IAEA.