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China Says Aukus Alliance Nuclear Submarine Pact Will Spark 'Arms Race'

2023-03-15T06:06:51.968Z


Beijing considers that the future transfer of atomic technology from the US and the UK to Australia goes against international non-proliferation agreements. Russia adds to Chinese concern


China and Russia have attacked this Tuesday against the new nuclear-powered submarine that the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia will develop in the next two decades.

The project, announced this Monday, is the main consequence so far of the military alliance known as Aukus that the three countries formed at the end of 2021 as a deterrent against the militarization of China in the Asia-Pacific.

Beijing considers that the agreement, presented at a trilateral summit in California between the US president, Joe Biden, the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the head of the Australian government, Anthony Albanese, "only stimulates an arms race", as he has assured. Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a routine appearance.

For Washington,

London and Canberra is, on the other hand, a movement aimed at increasing the deterrent capacity of the group in the region against a China that modernizes its fleet at a forced march.

Russia has joined the Chinese rejection of the submarine, considering that it "raises questions" about the proliferation of atomic weapons in the world.

“This is a typical Cold War mentality, which will only fuel an arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation system, and undermine regional peace and stability,” spokesman Wang said. Chinese President Xi Jinping said this Monday, the same day that the Aukus agreement became effective, which aims to modernize the People's Liberation Army to turn it into "a great wall of steel" capable of guaranteeing national sovereignty and the development of the country.

China views the presence of the US and its allies in the region with growing concern.

In recent days, both Xi and the country's new foreign minister, Qin Gang, have expressed their firm rejection of what they see as a "suppress and contain" strategy led by Washington, and which is being played out in numerous fields ranging from blocking the sale of advanced semiconductors to China to strengthening US ties with other countries in the region, such as Japan or the Philippines.

Qin went so far as to assure in his appearance that if the United States does not “step on the brake” it runs the risk of reaching “conflict”.

The agreement to manufacture submarines is the most far-reaching initiative announced by this three-way alliance, sealed in September 2021 in order to combine strategies and military capabilities in Asia.

In the first phase, already underway, British and American submarines will travel to Australia for training exercises.

From now on, Canberra will start building facilities to produce and house new ships and those of its two allies.

In 2027, a US-UK submarine force will rotate in Australia.

In the next phase, in the early 2030s, when Canberra retires its fleet of diesel submarines, in parallel with the development of the new vessel, Australia will purchase three Virginia-class nuclear submarines already under construction from the US, with an option to buy two more.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Joe Biden, at Point Loma Naval Base, Monday.Eric Thayer (Bloomberg)

“Our agreement on Aukus is part of our shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Biden said Monday in a brief appearance at the Point Loma naval base in San Diego, next to a US nuclear submarine.

Sunak highlighted among the "challenges", China's "growing assertiveness" and "the destabilizing behavior of Iran and North Korea", which "threaten to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division".

Faced with this reality, the British Prime Minister stressed: "It is more important than ever that we strengthen the resilience of our own countries."

China's diplomatic mission to the United Nations has also immediately shown its opposition to what it considers "a flagrant act that constitutes a serious risk of nuclear proliferation, undermines the international non-proliferation system, fuels the arms race and harms peace and stability in the region”, as published on Tuesday on social networks.

In a statement, he underscores the "irony" of two nuclear weapon states (the United States and the United Kingdom) transferring tons of weapons-grade enriched uranium to another non-nuclear weapon state, "clearly violating the object and purpose" of the Treaty. of Non-Proliferation”.

In the environment of this renewed geopolitical tension, with overtones of a new cold war, is the volatile situation in Taiwan, the self-governing island that China considers an inalienable part of its territory and to which the US supplies weapons.

The visit to the enclave in August by the then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, angered Beijing, which reacted with military exercises of unknown intensity in the waters of the Taiwan Strait.

Relations with Washington hit lows, they rose in November after a meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi at the G-20 summit in Bali (Indonesia), but frayed again in February, after the White House ordered the shooting down of a Chinese balloon that he had entered US soil without permission.

With a message similar to that expressed by China, the Kremlin has received with concern the announcement of a new generation of nuclear submarines from what it considers today its great enemy, what it contemptuously calls "the Anglo-Saxon world."

“Many issues arise here related to the problem of [nuclear] non-proliferation.

Special transparency is needed here, and the questions that are emerging must be answered," said Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov.

Russia suspended its participation in the New Start strategic arms reduction treaty on February 21.

Among their demands to return to fulfill their commitments is that the United Kingdom, present in Aukus, also participate in the agreement.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-03-15

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