AUKUS Trilateral Security Partnership between Australia, UK & USA – Free PDF Download

AUKUS

• The UK, US and Australia have announced a historic security pact in the Asia-Pacific, in what’s seen as an effort to counter China.

• It is a new three-way strategic defence alliance between Australia, the UK and US, initially to build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines, but also to work together in the Indo-Pacific region, where the rise of China is seen as an increasing threat, and develop wider technologies.
• The deal marks the first time the US has shared nuclear propulsion technology with an ally apart from the UK.
• ONLY SIX countries in the world—America, Britain, China, France, India and Russia—currently operate nuclear-powered submarines. Australia may become the unlikely seventh.

• In a statement and joint televised appearance Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, America, Britain and Australia’s leaders, announced what they described as an “enhanced trilateral security partnership”, named AUKUS. Its first initiative, and the jewel in its crown, will be collaboration on future nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy.

AUKUS is based on an Australian idea.

• It will cover diplomatic, security and defence co-operation in the Indo-Pacific.
• It includes joint work on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and “additional undersea capabilities”, such as underwater sensors and drones.
• The perceived scale of the Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific region has grown dramatically in recent years. Nuclear-propelled submarines in this context have longer range, are quicker and are harder to detect

• Relations between the three allies and China were already at a low and the deal, which did not name China but was widely understood to be in response to its expansionism in the South China Sea and aggression towards Taiwan, drew a swift response from Beijing.
• A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said the three countries were in the grip of an “obsolete cold war zero sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical concepts” and should “respect regional people’s aspiration ,otherwise they will only end up hurting their own interests
• Western nations have been wary of China’s infrastructure investment on Pacific islands, and have also criticised China’s trade sanctions against countries like Australia.
• Australia had in the past maintained good relations with China, its biggest trading partner. But the relationship has broken down in recent years amid political tensions.
• These submarines are much faster and harder to detect than conventionally powered fleets. They can stay submerged for months, shoot missiles longer distances and also carry more.
• Having them stationed in Australia is critical to US influence in the region, analysts say.
• The US is sharing its submarine technology for the first time in 50 years. It had previously only shared technology with the UK.

• India was working on the first Indian nuclear submarine, the INS Arihant, was commissioned in 2016. A second Arihant-class submarine, INS Arighat, was secretly launched in 2017, and is likely to be commissioned soon.
• After it demonstrated the capability to launch nuclear weapons in 2018, the INS Arihant is now classified as a Strategic Strike Nuclear Submarine or SSBN, which means it is a nuclear-powered ballistic submarine.

• INS Arihant is important because it completes India’s nuclear triad, which means that the country has the capacity to launch nuclear missiles from land, aircraft, and submarine.
• The next concern obviously is India, who is part of the Quad grouping often referred to as Asia’s NATO. Does this deal mean the US is pushing Quad to the backburner, as a lot of their stated objectives coincide?
• there are no reasons for India to be worried, as the new grouping pulls UK—another major global power—into the Indo-Pacific Cold War; the AUKUS would complement Quad, and further push France closer to India.

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