Former leader says sub deal protects US, not Australia

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s deal to acquire submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology was aimed at protecting the United States from Chinese nuclear attack and had changed Australia-Sino relations, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating said on Wednesday.

Keating, who led a center-left Labor Party government from 1991 until 1996, told the National Press Club that Australia’s current conservative government treated France “appallingly” in September when it canceled a 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) contract to build an Australian fleet of 12 diesel-electric submarines.

Instead, Australia will acquire eight nuclear- powered submarines utilizing U.S. technology under a new alliance with the United States and Britain.

Keating expected Australia’s submarines would be based on the U.S. Virginia-class design rather than the smaller British Astute-class version.

“Eight submarines against China, when we get the submarine in 20 years’ time, it’ll be like throwing a handful of toothpicks at a mountain,” Keating said.

Australia’s nuclear-propelled submarines would be designed to contain Chinese nuclear- armed submarines to shallow waters close to China’s coast, Keating said.

“In other words, to stop the Chinese having a second-strike nuclear capability against the United States,” Keating said. “This changes our relationship” with China.

Keating sits on an advisory board to the China Development Bank, a state- owned institution that raises money for large infrastructure projects. His critics have described him as an apologist for Beijing, which has had a frosty relationship with

Australia in recent years.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin repeated China’s accusation that Australia was solely responsible for the downturn in relations, linked to issues including Australian moves to prevent foreign political meddling and calls for a thorough investigation into the Chinese origins of the coronavirus pandemic.