Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has rejected China’s criticism of nuclear submarines that Canberra will acquire as part of the AUKUS security pact it signed with the US and UK as “unfactual”.
In an interview published on Tuesday GuardianWong defended the security plan the day after the US president, Joe Biden and Australian and British Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Rishi Sunak to announce details of the San Diego (USA) submarine.
China’s Permanent Mission to the UN wrote on its Twitter account why the AUKUS alliance deal distrusts them.
“It is a brazen act that creates serious proliferation risks and undermines the international non-proliferation system. It fuels an arms race and undermines regional peace and stability.” they showed.
He also added, “The irony of #AUKUS is that two nuclear-weapon states claiming to maintain the highest nuclear standards are clearly under the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty).”
However, Wong said it was “very clear” that Australia had not acquired nuclear weapons and that “Australia’s motive is peace.”
“No one wants an escalation (of tension). No one wants to see a miscalculation.” qualified as a minister.
Australia and others have in the past accused China of lacking transparency in its military investments and military expansion, and criticized China’s expansion in the South China Sea and threats to Taiwan.
In this region, countries such as the Philippines, Singapore, and Japan oaks understands that it balances defense capabilities, but countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have expressed reservations about the plan.
AUKUS Pact
Australia is expected to spend approximately AU$368,000 million (US$245,198 million or €228,564 million) on its nuclear submarine program over the next 30 years. SSN-AUKUS.
AUKUS plans include acquiring three U.S. Virginia-class submarines by early 2030, with the possibility of acquiring two more. England Design new nuclear submarines to be built on British and Australian soil in the coming decades.
All three US submarines are due to be delivered by 2030, the UK will deliver its first SSN-AUKUS submarine by the end of that decade, and Australia will complete construction of its first submarine in the early 2040s. can. SSN-AUKUS Added text at Adelaide City Shipyards.
The acquisition makes Australia the 7th country in the world to have nuclear submarines – Together with the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and India – This will take place within the framework of the AUKUS Agreement signed by Washington, London and Canberra in September 2021 due to concerns over China’s growing influence in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
Source: Biobiochile
