Indo-Pacific to be better served by Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Initiatives
The US has joined the UK and Australia to announce A New Trilateral Security Partnership, AUKUS, which aims to ensure that the Indo-Pacific region will have lasting freedom and openness, specifically to “address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve”, according to President Joe Biden. Two dimensions are important: first, it complements many of the already existing arrangements for the field, including: five eyes intelligence cooperation Initiative, ASEAN And quad, including India last; And second, it proposes a technology transfer to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia within 18 months. Australia has ratified the nuclear NPT and vowed to adhere to its principles, despite the highly sensitive technology transfer enshrined in the latest proposal. Mr. Biden went to great lengths to reassure the world that AUKUS was “not talking about nuclear-armed submarines. These are conventionally armed submarines that are powered by nuclear reactors. This technology is proven.” Australia will become only the second nation, after the UK, that America’s share of nuclear submarine technology ever with. The announcement of the partnership led to a minor kerfuffle with New Zealand, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stating that under her country’s 1984 nuclear-free zone policy, Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines were not allowed in the former’s territorial waters. will be given. It also appeared to upset the political leadership in France, with which Australia had struck a deal – which has now been scrapped – for $90 billion of conventional submarines.
The broader strategic question that constitutes AUKUS concerns the destabilizing challenge that the group poses to China’s ambitions for regional hegemony, particularly with regards to whether the US, Britain and Australia, along with other regional powers, seek to preserve How far will you go? A free and open Indo-Pacific region, including the South China Sea. Will the conduct of this security partnership lead to closer coordination between the countries concerned in terms of joint military presence, war games and more in the region, prompting a new, “counterfeit” currency for Beijing? Eventually, underwater capabilities, including the ability to patrol the region, could be crucial to deter Chinese military forces. Although there was no explicit mention of China in any of the AUKUS announcements, it is clear, as one official later told the media, that the transfer of nuclear propulsion technology to an ally in this context was intended to “send a message of reassurance”. ” Was. Countries of Asia”. Whether AUKUS aims to contain China’s aggressive regional ambitions, better address the imperative of the Indo-Pacific by broadening such strategic cooperation initiatives to include other powers deeply invested in the region, including India, Japan be fulfilled. , and South Korea.
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