US builds bulwark against China with UK-Australia security pact

[ad_1]

US foreign policy updates

Subscribe to the myFT Daily Digest to be the first to know about US foreign policy news.

Washington has launched a new trilateral security partnership with London and Canberra that will support Australia’s plan to build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet, a move that will enhance the allies’ ability to counter China.

The move is US President Joe Biden’s latest effort to bolster alliances amid rising tensions with China over disputes ranging from the South China Sea to Taiwan.

Biden was preparing to announce the deal at a virtual event with Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison Thursday evening in Washington.

The leaders said they would boost cooperation in areas such as the internet, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and undersea capabilities – as well as help Australia build a nuclear-powered submarine force.

A British official said the coalition would focus on naval and defense technology, as opposed to the “Five Eyes” arrangement through which the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada share intelligence.

A senior US official said Biden did not tell China’s Xi Jinping about the initiative when the two leaders spoke last week. The new alliance – dubbed AUKUS – was formed one week before Biden hosted the leaders of Japan, India and Australia for the first in-person summit of the “Quartet” – a security group also designed to counter China, which Beijing has decisively described as the “Asian NATO”.

The US official said that while Australia would obtain nuclear propulsion technology – which the US only shares with the UK – Canberra will not develop nuclear weapons.

Cory Schack, head of foreign and defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said the deal would send a strong signal to Beijing.

It was “an elegant message, a reminder to China that Australia has the technological capabilities and alliance relationships that could become a nuclear power if the threat posed by China becomes so severe,” she said. “It is also a good moment for the Biden administration to demonstrate its commitment to the security of its allies after the disaster of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

The US official said the ships would enhance Australia’s naval capabilities because they are faster and more stealthy than conventional submarines.

Recommended

The boats can also operate farther out from Australia, including the South China Sea, and do not need to surface as frequently.

Australian media said Canberra would end an existing $90 billion program to buy 12 French-designed conventional submarines. Over the next 18 months, the Allies will decide how to build the fleet, the official said.

“This is a fundamental decision that decisively connects Australia, the United States and Great Britain for generations,” the US official said.

Richard Fontaine, head of the Center for a New American Security, said the submarines were a “big bargain” that would not only give Australia better capabilities but help Washington, particularly amid criticism that China is outperforming the United States in building naval ships and submarines. .

The real measure of comparison is not China on one side and the United States on the other. “It’s China on one side and the United States and its allies on the other,” Fontaine said.

Follow Dimitri Sevastopoulo and Laura Hughes on Twitter

[ad_2]