The US, UK, and Australia declare a security partnership ‘AUKUS’ which allow Australia to assemble nuclear-powered submarines

The US, UK, and Australia have declared the establishment of a security partnership known as AUKUS. One of the vital elements of this military alliance is that Washington and London will assist Canberra with creating nuclear-powered submarines.

The UK, US, and Australia have reported a historic security pact in the Asia-Pacific, in what’s viewed as work to counter China. It will allow Australia to assemble nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using technology given by the US.

Earlier this week, the US, Australia, and the UK reported a new trilateral AUKUS defence alliance. The new cautious defensive pact Canberra to abandon a $66 billion agreement with France to develop 12 state-of-the-art conventionally powered attack submarines.

The G7 incorporates Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The summit in Cornwall, held on June 11-13, was likewise gone to by the leaders of the European Union and a few guest countries, like South Korea, Australia, and South Africa.

It is an act by the US and UK, two nuclear-weapon states, to secretly support and give carriers of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear technology, and nuclear materials to Australia, a non-nuclear-weapon state, within the Anglosphere. Yet, the move runs counter to the objectives and core obligations set by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

To start with, the AUKUS move will prompt the proliferation of carriers of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the world. Albeit the nuclear-powered submarine isn’t a kind of nuclear weapon itself, it actually can carry nuclear weapons. It likewise belongs to a significant platform for carrying WMD.

There are just six nations in the world that have nuclear submarines, including China, the US, Russia, the UK, France, and India, all of which have nuclear weapons too. Nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear weapons are inseparably connected with one another.

Second, AUKUS will spread fissionable material that could be used to make nuclear weapons. The second paragraph of Article III of the NPT states that every member party to the Treaty attempts not to give special fissionable material to any non-nuclear-weapon state except if subject to different safeguards.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has no authority to supervise nuclear materials for submarines in light of their military implications, which has impartially made conditions for Australia to make nuclear weapons. In history, Australia once intended to develop its nuclear arsenal, while the UK led its first nuclear test in Australia in 1952.

Third, the partnership between the UK, the US, and Australia might prompt the proliferation of uranium enrichment technology.

Washington and London’s nuclear-powered submarines run on exceptionally enhanced uranium, while Canberra is wealthy in uranium deposits. If the US and the UK move the uranium-enriching technology to Australia to assist it with becoming self-sufficient in nuclear fuel, it would be no greater than the international nuclear black market detailed by the media in the mid-2000s.

Fourth, the AUKUS move will negatively affect the international nuclear non-proliferation regime. Since Australia can openly procure nuclear materials by creating nuclear-powered submarines, other non-nuclear-weapon states might follow suit, bringing about the unlimited dangers of nuclear proliferation on our living planet. In this way, James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the new activity of the three nations “a terrible precedent.”

Also, at last, the trilateral security partnership is almost sure to trigger a regional arms race.

Canberra’s peace record in the Indo-Pacific region isn’t unblemished. Australian soldiers were partaking in low wars in countries like Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan. In this manner, Australia’s improved underwater attack ability is no good news for neighbors who might be constrained into a vicious circle of the arms race to ensure their national safety.

The Aukus pact, which will likewise cover AI and different technologies, is one of the countries’ greatest defence partnerships in decades, investigators say. China has denounced the agreement as “extremely irresponsible”.

Foreign ministry representative Zhao Lijian said it “seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race”. China’s embassy in Washington blamed the nations for a “Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice”.

The agreement additionally made a line with France, which has now lost a deal with Australia to build 12 submarines.

“It’s really a stab in the back,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.

The new partnership was reported in a joint virtual press conference between US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on Wednesday.

And keeping in mind that China was not referenced directly, the three leaders referred more than once to regional security concerns which they said had “grown significantly”.

Taking a gander at the most recent changes in nuclear policies of the US and the UK, it is obvious that what these countries have done has disappointed the world. US President Joe Biden once campaigned in his election campaign to decrease the role of nuclear weapons in the US security policy. Nonetheless, under eight months after going into the White House, he is eating his campaign vow.

The equivalent is likewise evident in the UK. In March this year, the country changed its nuclear system definitely and made a huge step backward in its nuclear arms control. It not only expanded its nuclear weapon stockpile cap from 180 to 260 warheads, yet moved to bring down the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

Peace, development, and nuclear non-proliferation are what most countries in the world yearn for. The activities of the US, the UK, and Australia to challenge the bottom line of nuclear non-proliferation will not look good for our living world.

These submarines are a lot faster and harder to distinguish than conventionally powered fleets. They can remain lowered for months, shoot missiles longer distances and carry more. Having them stationed in Australia is basic to US impact in the region, experts say.

The US is sharing its submarine technology for the first time in 50 years. It had already just shared technology with the UK.

Australia will become only the seventh country in the world to work with nuclear-powered submarines, after the US, UK, France, China, India, and Russia. Australia has reaffirmed it has no goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

In the interim, New Zealand said it would ban Australia’s submarines from its waters, per a current policy on the presence of nuclear-powered submarines. New Zealand, albeit a Five Eyes member, has been more cautious in lining up with either the US or China in the Pacific. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her country had not been approached to join the pact.