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Nuclear-powered rapid attack submarine USS Illinois: A submarine deal between the US, UK and Australia causes trouble
Photo: Petty Officer 1st Class Michael / dpa
A US and UK submarine deal with Australia is causing trouble in China.
Now the US has defended the agreement.
According to the US government, the new defense alliance between the US, Australia and the UK is not directed against Beijing.
It is about stability, security and peace in the Indo-Pacific, said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Thursday.
The United States welcomed stiff competition with China but did not seek conflict.
"This agreement (...) is not directed against anything or anyone," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Australian counterparts Peter Dutton and Marise Payne in Washington.
"As with everything we do together on security, this is about upholding the rules-based international order that both Australia and the United States deeply believe in and defend," Blinken said.
Clear criticism of China's role in the Indo-Pacific
Both Blinken and Austin clearly criticized China's role in the Indo-Pacific.
"We talked at length about China's destabilizing activities and Beijing's efforts to coerce and intimidate other countries," Austin said of the meeting with his Australian colleagues.
Beijing is trying to undermine the established international order.
China is exerting economic pressure on Australia, Blinken said.
"We have made it clear that actions like this, aimed at our allies, will hinder improvements in our own relations with the Chinese government," he warned.
US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously announced a new alliance which, according to security experts, is aimed in particular against the military threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific.
This includes the acquisition of nuclear powered submarines by Australia using British and US technology.
Angry reaction from France
The agreement is not only causing trouble in China.
France has also been angry about this.
As a result of the deal, the French shipping company Naval Group won an order placed by Australia in 2016 to build a new submarine fleet with a volume of 40 billion dollars.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke of a breach of trust and accused US President Biden of having behaved like his predecessor Donald Trump.
"This brutal, one-sided and unpredictable decision reminds me in many ways of what Mr. Trump did," Le Drian told a French radio station.
After the angry reaction from Paris, the US Secretary of State Blinken is now obviously trying to smooth things over.
“We work incredibly closely with France on many common priorities in the Indo-Pacific, but also worldwide.
We will continue to do so.
We attach fundamental importance to this relationship, this partnership, ”said Blinken on Thursday in Washington.
asc / dpa
