By Shristi Amatya
A new scandal is breaking out in the world: Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced the creation of a military alliance, but this caused a sharp reaction from France. For the first time in history, Paris even recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra. In addition, the creation of the alliance is very unhappy in China – unofficially, the Chinese authorities even threatened to launch a nuclear strike on Australia.
Quite unexpectedly, a new military alliance appeared on planet Earth, the name of which was given by the first letters of the participating states. A – Australia, UK – United Kingdom, US – United States turns out – “AUKUS”.
The creation of a new alliance with the participation of the United States and Great Britain is like a signal to the whole of NATO – of course, it’s interesting with you, but we need something new, more relevant.
After the creation of AUKUS, the abbreviation “NATO” smelled of old age, mossiness, yesterday. I think the participating countries themselves have begun to understand this. They probably even began to guess that the supposedly reliable ally of the United States could easily leave any member of the alliance, just as he left France.
The NATO alliance, created in the middle of the last century, was directed against the USSR. Even the very logic of the location of the participating countries directly indicates this.
Now China has begun to take the first positions (especially economically), and therefore the West has regrouped – it has taken Australia as an ally, which is an excellent springboard in the Pacific Ocean, in the very underbelly of China.
So, the official purpose of the creation of AUKUS is to strengthen the cooperation of its members in the fields of diplomacy, security and defense in the Indo-Pacific region. At the same time, the real goal of creating an alliance is a means of opposing the PRC – the Chinese Foreign Ministry speaker described the alliance in the same way, who accused the United States and Australia of “creating an anti-Chinese gang”, as well as undermining regional stability and exacerbating the arms race.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs sharply criticized the alliance, calling it a product of “outdated Cold War-era mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical concepts.” Beijing has appealed to AUKUS members to “respect the aspirations of the people of the region… otherwise, they will only harm their own interests.”
Within the framework of the new association, the countries plan to deepen military and military-technical cooperation, which meets “the interests of promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” In particular, it is planned to assist Canberra in creating its own nuclear submarine fleet. In the next year and a half, the partners intend to assess opportunities in this direction.
According to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there is no reason to fear a violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
After the announcement of the creation of AUKUS, Australia announced the termination of a multibillion-dollar contract with France for the supply of French submarines to Canberra. The agreement worth €56 billion involved the production of 12 Attack-class attack submarines by the Naval Group.
An even tougher reaction to the formation of a new military alliance followed from China. Beijing regarded the creation of AUKUS as an unfriendly step in its direction. According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, the agreements between the three countries, including on nuclear submarines, “contradict the spirit of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.” In turn, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang stressed that this cooperation is “extremely irresponsible” and will accelerate the arms race. “It undermines regional peace and stability and neglects international nonproliferation efforts.”
The former UN Deputy Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Chinese diplomat Sha Zukang, said that Beijing should abandon the policy of not using nuclear weapons first and be ready to strike in order to repel new alliances in the Pacific region.
Thus, once again we see how the United States and its Western allies, hiding behind good goals and good plans, are now beginning to build up military strength in the Asia-Pacific region, thereby increasing tensions among many countries that are located in this region. There are two world giants China and India in close proximity, and the question arises whether the United States and its allies have hidden goals in this way to try to put pressure on India also, being at a very impressive distance, without having common borders, to have and gradually strengthen their military potential in the immediate vicinity of these countries.
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