The recently announced AUKUS agreement, an alliance between the US, UK, and Australia, has caused a stir in global politics. While it is said to be aimed at promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, concerns have been raised about its impact on China and the potential risks it poses to regional security. In this article, we take a closer look at a commentary by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, which offers insights into the Chinese perspective on the AUKUS agreement and why they believe that no good would come out of it.
The AUKUS nuclear submarines pact, a trilateral security agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, has been met with controversy and opposition from the international community since its announcement over a year ago. Recently, the three countries defied international opposition and announced the pathway to the pact, thereby adding nuclear proliferation risk, undermining the international non-proliferation regime, fueling an arms race and destroying peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.
Despite objections from countries in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the three governments have turned a deaf ear to the rest of the world and persisted on their unilateral path. The trilateral pact is the first time nuclear weapon countries have transferred naval nuclear propulsion reactors and weapons-grade highly-enriched uranium to a non-nuclear nation, posing significant non-proliferation risks and violating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
The AUKUS deal has also been a blow to global non-proliferation efforts since potential nuclear proliferators “may use naval reactor programs as a cover for developing nuclear weapons,” according to an article published in The National Interest magazine. This weakens the deterrence of safeguards and makes nuclear proliferation more likely.
The safeguards issues surrounding nuclear submarines cooperation are an international affair that heavily impacts the interests of all International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states. Therefore, its issues should be settled through intergovernmental discussions by all interested IAEA parties. Washington, London, and Canberra should not put their own geopolitical ends above international laws, regulations, or the interests of other countries.
All IAEA member states need to work together to keep intergovernmental discussions in place, find a way to resolve the safeguards issues, and firmly defend the international non-proliferation regime so as to safeguard global peace and security. The AUKUS pact should not be put in place until a broad consensus is reached between interested parties.
As former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating stated, AUKUS is “the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government.” The deal has set a dangerous precedent that could prompt other countries to follow suit, gravely harming global non-proliferation efforts and jeopardizing peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large.
Therefore, the international community should continue to express their concerns, doubts, and objections over the trilateral security pact, emphasizing the need for open, transparent, inclusive, and sustainable intergovernmental discussions between all IAEA member states, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region. In doing so, the world can work together to defend the international non-proliferation regime and prevent nuclear weapons from proliferating, thereby safeguarding global peace and security.
