Australia, United Kingdom, and United States announce major new AUKUS defence pact

Australia, United Kingdom, and United States announce major new AUKUS defence pact

Stuff

Thomas Manch14:55, Sep 16 2021

 

Jacinda Ardern adopts Indo-Pacific outlook, aligning with US foreign policy | Stuff.co.nz

1,757 views Jul 14, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcLWPFZfZ14

 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand has "embraced" the 'Indo-Pacific' view of the world, in a foreign policy speech.

 

Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States have announced a major new defence pact, that will have nuclear submarine technology shared with Australia in a bid to counter China's rising power.

The pact, dubbed AUKUS, was announced by the leaders of the three countries in a joint press conference held over a video-link, on Thursday.

Though China was not mentioned, the creation of the new pact is an explicit salvo in the growing geo-political struggle over the Indo-Pacific.

Australia would be the immediate beneficiary of the AUKUS pact, receiving a nuclear submarine fleet in the coming years. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would not acquire nuclear weaponry or civil nuclear infrastructure, and the submarines would only have conventional weapons on board.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would be gaining nuclear submarines, but not nuclear weapons, under a new defence pact with the United Kingdom and United States.

 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she spoke to Morrison about the pact on Wednesday night, and New Zealand had not been approached to join the new partnership.

 

"Nor would I expect us to be. The centrepiece of this arrangement is the building of nuclear-powered submarines, to be based out of Australia, and Prime Minister Morrison and indeed all partners are very well versed and understand our position on nuclear-powered vessels and also nuclear weapons.

“That of course means that they well understood our likely position on the establishment of nuclear-powered submarines and their use in the region.”

The Government’s policy that nuclear-powered vessels could not enter New Zealand waters, a long-held position, would not change, Ardern said.

She said there would be “absolutely no change” to New Zealand’s relationship with the US, the UK, or Australia, or the Five Eyes intelligence sharing partnership.

"We have worked hard, as Australia has done, to ensure greater engagement by the United Kingdom and the United States in our region. But our lens will always be from it over a Pacific nation, and our view of what is best for our region. We want peace. We want stability, and we want a rules based order that is preserved.”

 

US President Joe Biden said a new AUKUS pact would deepen co-operation between the countries in the Indo-Pacific.

 

The deal means that Australia is only the second country the US has shared it nuclear submarine secrets with, after the UK received access in 1958. Six countries have nuclear-powered submarines, including Russia, France, China and India.

The AUKUS pact will also encompass defence and foreign policy meetings, and co-operation in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies.

“Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region, the Indo-Pacific. This effects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures,” Morrison said at the Thursday press conference.

“To meet these challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.”

US President Joe Biden said the pact would deepen and formalise co-operation between the AUKUS nations, “because we all recognise the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term”.

 

“We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region, and how may evolve. Because the future of each of our nations, and indeed the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific, enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead.”

 

The Indo-Pacific is a term use widely by US-aligned countries, and recently embraced by the New Zealand Government, to include India in the strategic picture of the Asia-Pacific region as a greater counter-weight against China’s growing influence.

As well as New Zealand, Canada has not been included in the pact. Both are traditional national security partners of Australia, UK, and the US as past of the Five Eyes intelligence arrangement.

 

New Zealand was formerly a member of the ANZUS treaty alliance with the US, however its involvement mostly ended in the 1980s when it declined to accept US nuclear-powered vessels in New Zealand waters. Australia has maintained closer defence ties with the US since.

Biden said the US would continue to work with the “five treaty allies” – a reference to the Five Eyes arrangement and its offshoots – and “other close partners in the Pacific”.

 

UK Prime Minister Johnson said providing nuclear submarines to Australia would be one of the most “complex” technology programmes in the world that would take decades.

“Only a handful of countries possess nuclear powered submarines, and it is a momentous decision for any nation to acquire this formidable capability, and perhaps equally momentous for any other state to come to its aid.

“The UK will embark on this project, alongside our allies, making the world safer and generating jobs across the United Kingdom.”

 

The new submarines would be built in Adelaide, Australia, after an 18 months period for planning the project.