China on Tuesday warned the UK, the US and Australia that they have “gone further down a wrong and dangerous road” with their nuclear submarines agreement, responding angrily to the pact under which Washington will sell five of the nuclear-powered vessels to Canberra and three countries will together develop a fleet.
The deal will “stimulate an arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation system and damage regional peace and stability”, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin, told reporters on Tuesday.
In a joint statement, the three countries announced on Monday their “decision to support Australia acquiring conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs). Today, we announce our pathway to achieve this critical capability”.
In September 2021, the three countries announced the AUKUS, described in yesterday’s joint statement as “…a new security partnership that will promote a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable”.
The tripartite AUKUS alliance was instituted to strengthen the US, British and Australian presence in the Indo-Pacific to counter the rise of China in a region where Beijing has been increasingly expanding its naval footprint.
The joint statement called the submarine deal “The first major initiative of AUKUS was our historic trilateral decision”.
The deal has left China fuming.
Beijing has repeatedly accused the AUKUS, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — of which India and Japan besides the US and Australia are members — as blocs designed to encircle it.
“China has repeatedly stressed that the AUKUS pact and the three countries’ efforts to advance cooperation on nuclear submarine and other cutting edge military technology is typical cold war mentality,” Wang said, adding it will fuel arms race and undermine the international non-proliferation regime and harm regional peace and stability.
“The three countries’ latest joint statement shows that in pursuit of geopolitical selfish interests the three countries can disregard the international community’s concerns and they are travelling further down the dangerous and wrong path,” Wang said.
“Their cooperation concerns the transfer from nuclear weapons states to non-nuclear weapons states of large amounts of weapons grade uranium. It constitutes grave nuclear proliferation risks and violates the purposes and objectives of the NPT (The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is widely known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT),” Wang said
The AUKUS joint statement said that starting in the early 2030s, Washington intends to sell Australia three Virginia class submarines, with the potential to sell up to two more if needed.
They will also develop submarines together.
“Together we will deliver SSN-AUKUS — a trilaterally-developed submarine based on the United Kingdom’s next-generation design that incorporates technology from all three nations, including cutting edge US submarine technologies.”
“This step will systematically grow Australia’s sovereign SSN capability and support capacity. In the late 2030s, the United Kingdom will deliver its first SSN-AUKUS to the Royal Navy. Australia will deliver the first SSN-AUKUS built in Australia to the Royal Australian Navy in the early 2040s,” the joint statement added.
Source- Hindustan Times.
