A day after Australia signed a deal to acquire nuclear submarines from the United States and the United Kingdom, China reacted sharply to the development and asserted that the group is treading a path of "error and danger".
While addressing a regular press briefing on Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the latest joint statement from the US, UK and Australia demonstrated that the trio, for the sake of their own geopolitical interests, has completely disregarded the concerns of the international communities. Further, he asserted that the trio are walking further and further down the path of error and danger.
What is AUKUS?
It is a security pact which is similar to Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). Although unlike, QUAD-- a multilateral dialogue platform between Australia, India, Japan and the United States-- which aims to discuss shared ideas in the Indo-Pacific region, the AUKUS is a "security pact" between the trio.
The AUKUS deal was brokered by US President Joe Biden and then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on September 15, 2021. In a joint statement, Washington, and London agreed to provide hypersonic missiles to Canberra. Although neither of the three had mentioned China behind the grouping, it was obvious that the intention was to safeguard and ensure a free Indo-Pacific region.
AUKUS controversies
It is worth mentioning France had signed a multi-billion contract with Australia for a dozen conventional diesel-electric submarines. The deal was worth at least $66 billion. However, in September 2021, the deal was abruptly cancelled by Australia, resulting in billion of losses to France.
According to multiple media reports, President Biden reportedly insisted Canberra ditch the deal and persuaded the then Australian PM Scott Morrison to purchase America-made weapons.
Irked by the cancellation of a multi-billion dollar contract, French President Emmanuel Macron had even lambasted the Australian PM and said he lied to him and added he was secretly negotiating a submarine deal with the United States and Britain. Answering a reporter’s question about whether he thinks Morrison lied to him, Macron had said, "I was stabbed by my allied partners".
Later in June last year, the newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed to pay a fair and equitable settlement of 555 million euros ($584m) to France, thus ending a 10-year-old multibillion-dollar submarine contract.
Also Read: UK invites India to join AUKUS agreement. Will India join trilateral security pact?
