Joint appearance by the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom and AustraliaNaval Base Point Loma in the US this week, and details about them “AUKUS” Trilateral Defense Agreement are important in optics and matter, suggesting a new chapter in the global great power rivalry. The agreement in the Indo-Pacific region will have three phases, with the first one announced in September 2021. Starting this year, the US and UK navies will embed Australian personnel, and increase port visits to Australia for simultaneous training. In the second phase, US and UK nuclear submarines will take turns visiting Australia, and the US will sell five nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarines to Australia. Subsequently, a new submarine named SSN-AUKUS will be built and used by all three navies inter-operably. The largest deal for Australia, using British design and US technology, is expected to cost $368 billion. It is not difficult to imagine who is the target of such an alliance. In his speech, UK leader Rishi Sunak said the most recent challenges to the world came from “Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, China’s growing assertiveness”. [and] The destabilizing behavior of Iran and North Korea”. The new alliance is seen as a counter to China enforcing its claims on Taiwan, with the idea being that a naval fleet including nuclear-powered submarines based in Australia would be able to quickly access the South China Sea.
Obviously, Beijing’s opposition has been the toughest – a “wrong and dangerous path” – while Russia has raised questions over nuclear proliferation, as Australia will join the league of countries that use nuclear-powered submarines. While US President Joe Biden insisted that the submarines would be nuclear-powered, but not nuclear-armed, Russia and China are expected to express concern over any violations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty regime at a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. are supposed to. Putin in Moscow. New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia have signaled a more muted disquiet. India has not yet responded, partly due to the fact that the AUCS countries have undoubtedly passed the information on to New Delhi. For New Delhi, which has always been hesitant to explore the more strategic and defense aspects in the Quad, AUKUS brings it relief in the Indo-Pacific military calculus. India, as a voice for the global south, must make every effort to ensure that this announcement does not exacerbate the already sharp divisions between the US-led alliances and the Russia-China alliance, and instead fuel global conflict. be a deterrent rather than an exacerbation. ,