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AUKUS

Assange’s Freedom May Be Pivotal In Australia’s Support For US

October 24, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , ,
The stakes are high as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in Washington, D.C., today to meet with President Joe Biden. The U.S. government hopes to obtain Australia’s support for its cold war initiatives against China. Australia is one of the United States’ closest allies. Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. comprise “AUKUS,” a trilateral “security” alliance in the Indo-Pacific. This is a crucial issue for Australia as well. Before Albanese left for the United States, he told parliament that the AUKUS transfer of U.S. and British nuclear submarine technology to Australia was critical to the future of the alliance.

Unease Over New Zealand Overtures To US Military Presence In The Pacific

August 28, 2023 Mick Hall, Consortium News. , , , , ,
Whangarei,New Zealand - Recent reports from New Zealand’s security state have sparked protest after all but suggesting the country join the U.S.-led AUKUS military alliance, a move that would reverse years of New Zealand’s independent foreign and defence policy and put it on a collision course with China. Ex-Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark lamented the loss of what would remain of the country’s military sovereignty. Clark blasted an “orchestrated campaign” by defence and security officials to join the U.S., Britain and Australia in AUKUS. In a Twitter thread, she said the government was “abandoning its capacity to think for itself and is instead cutting & pasting from Five Eyes partners.”

Protest At Australian Nuke Sub Port

April 6, 2023 Cathy Vogan, Consortium News. , , , ,
Under the AUKUS plan, Australia would pay the U.S. and Britain to the build and deliver three nuclear submarines by the early 2030s to the Port of Kembla in the city of Wollongong, 85 kms south of Sydney. Opponents of the plan, including the former Prime Minister Paul Keating, say China poses no military threat to Australia, but rather that the U.S. is leading Australia into a dangerous provocation against China.

Iraq Invasion, AUKUS Blasted In Rousing Sydney Rally

March 22, 2023 Consortium News. , , , ,
A week after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed in a meeting in San Diego with President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to spend A$368 billion to buy nuclear submarines from the two countries, anti-war activists met in a sweltering Sydney town hall on Sunday on the 20th anniversary of the start of the war against Iraq to hear why the submarine deal is a disaster for Australia that must be stopped.  Greens Party Senator David Shoebridge, former foreign minister Bob Carr, retired diplomat Alison Broinowski and Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkinson (via video hook-up from Virginia), told the rally that an aggressive United States was dragging Australia into an unnecessary conflict with its main trading partner, China, a country which posed no threat. 

US And Britain’s Submarine Deal Crosses Nuclear Red Lines

March 19, 2023 Prabir Purkayastha, Struggle La Lucha. , , , ,
The recent Australia, U.S., and UK $368 billion deal on buying nuclear submarines has been termed by Paul Keating, a former Australian prime minister, as the “worst deal in all history.” It commits Australia to buy conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines that will be delivered in the early 2040s. These will be based on new nuclear reactor designs yet to be developed by the UK. Meanwhile, starting from the 2030s, “pending approval from the U.S. Congress, the United States intends to sell Australia three Virginia class submarines, with the potential to sell up to two more if needed”.

US, UK, Australia Unveil AUKUS Nuclear-powered Submarine Deal

March 14, 2023 Dave DeCamp, News From Antiwar.com. , , , ,
On Monday, the US, Britain, and Australia unveiled their plans to develop nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS, a military pact the three countries signed in September 2021 to coordinate on advanced military technology against China. President Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese formally announced the plans at the US Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego. The ultimate goal is for Australia to begin producing a new type of nuclear-powered submarine known as SSN-AUKUS, but that isn’t expected to happen until the 2040s.

Back Door Proliferation

September 24, 2022 Binoy Kampmark, Counterpunch. , , ,
In Vienna, China’s permanent mission to the United Nations has been rather exercised of late. Members of the mission have been particularly irate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General, Rafael Grossi, who addressed the IAEA’s Board of Governors on September 12. Grossi was building on a confidential report by the IAEA which had been circulated the previous week concerning the role of nuclear propulsion technology for submarines to be supplied to Australia under the AUKUS security pact. When the AUKUS announcement was made in September last year, its significance shook security establishments in the Indo-Pacific. It was also no less remarkable, and troubling, for signalling the transfer of otherwise rationed nuclear technology to a third country.

Australia Finally Recognizes That The AUKUS Deal Makes No Sense At All

July 22, 2022 Moon of Alabama. , , ,
In September 2021 Australia, the UK and the U.S. announced AUKUS, a new alliance under which Australia would buy nuclear submarines from either the U.S. or UK and ditch its contract for French diesel driven u-boats. I spelled out the details and the negative consequence of the deal: To Protect Itself From U.S. Hostility Australia Decides To Buy U.S. Submarines This is a huge but short term win for the U.S. with an also-ran booby price for Britain and a strategic loss of sovereignty and budget control for Australia. It is another U.S. slap into the face of France and the European Union. The deal will piss off New Zealand, Indonesia and of course China. It will upset the international nuclear non proliferation regime and may lead to the further military nuclearization of South Korea and Japan. It was easy to predict that the deal would screw up the development schedule of the Australian navy. It would obviously also cost much more money than its budget can provide.

The Time To Prohibit Nuclear Weapons Is Now

October 8, 2021 Joyce Nelson, Rabble.ca. , , ,
Dr. Helen Caldicott, who has spent decades working for a nuclear weapons-free world, recently wrote a blunt op-ed with an unforgettable headline: “With All Its Wisdom, the Human Race Is Killing Itself.” Decrying the arms industry and the nine countries that now own nuclear weapons, Caldicott points to the one trillion dollars per year that the U.S. spends on “national defense,” and states that if we can’t learn to live in peace, we are doomed. At least 56 nations (“state parties”) have come to the same conclusion and have now signed the new UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which came into force in January 2021. Even though the Trudeau government claims it is committed to disarmament, it refuses to sign the treaty, citing its NATO membership (NATO opposes the treaty).

The Revenge Of White Colonialism Motivates The AUKUS Alliance

September 30, 2021 Danny Haiphong, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have formed an alliance called “AUKUS” to create, in the words of Australia PM Scott Morrison, “a partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our defense forces are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all.” AUKUS is primarily a military relationship but is said to include broad economic measures that undoubtedly seek to counter China’s rise in all spheres of development. The deal has been met with some opposition in the West. New Zealand has rejected the legitimacy of the alliance  while the French ambassadors to the US and Australia were recalled  after AUKUS essentially tore up a submarine agreement between France and Australia.

AUKUS – Australia, Stop Militarizing Our Home And Our Ocean

September 30, 2021 Lanka Truth. , , ,
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia have come together to sign an agreement  called AUKUS. According to the creators of this agreement, it is a pact to counter China's  influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Through the unveiling last week of the new Australia-UK U.S. trilateral military alliance, Australia will enter into an undefined arrangement with the USA  and the United Kingdom for "regional security" in the Indo-Pacific Region. The pact binds  Australia decisively to the United States and Great Britain for generations. It involves Australia purchasing nuclear-powered submarines, the "basing" of American troops,  and storing "ordnance" in Australia. It has provoked fury from the French, sharp criticism from  China, concern from several nations in the Indo-Pacific and confusion in Australia.

AUKUS – Catalyst For A Nuclear Arms Race In The Indo-Pacific Region

September 24, 2021 Steve Bell, Labour Outlook. , , ,
The new pact between the Australian, British and US governments is the latest escalation in a new cold war on China, and the developing world.  The “enhanced trilateral security partnership called AUKUS”(1) does not name China, but every single serious commentator has interpreted it as being aimed against the People’s Republic of China. Coming exactly one month after the fall of Kabul, the announcement was a blessed relief for both Joe Biden and Boris Johnson.  Biden reasserts US pre-eminence, weeks after it was humiliated by a foe without an air force.  Johnson resumes the ‘Global Britain’ adventure, weeks after British power more closely resembled a globule. For both of them, a policy shift has been made without reckoning with the past, or a messy national debate. 

Why The Nuclear Sub Deal Will End Badly For The Australians

September 21, 2021 Winslow Wheeler, Counter Punch. , , ,
Until we see a text, if any, of the executive agreement for the AUKUS thing-a-ma-gig, the only real meat of it seems to be the Australian purchase of nuclear US or UK subs rather than the “conventionally” (not really) powered French design.  The more I look over the submarine alternatives for the Australians, the less sense their decision to go nuclear makes. Australia has no nuclear power infrastructure; they will be dependent on the US or UK to provide same for any nuclear powered Australian attack subs.  For Australia to develop same on their homeland just to support these subs would be cost-insane. The cost of the 12 French subs has been variously described as $40, $60 and $90 billion with the $90 being the most likely but it is not at all clear what beyond just the hulls is accounted for (weapons, services, R&D, and more). 

Australia, UK, And US Nuclear Submarine Announcement

September 20, 2021 Sébastien Philippe, The Bulletin. , , ,
On September 15, US President Joe Biden, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched a new major strategic partnership to meet the “imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term.” Named AUKUS, the partnership was announced together with a bombshell decision: The United States and UK will transfer naval nuclear-propulsion technology to Australia. Such a decision is a fundamental policy reversal for the United States, which has in the past spared no effort to thwart the transfer of naval reactor technology by other countries, except for its World War II partner, the United Kingdom. Even France—whose “contract of the century” to sell 12 conventional submarines to Australia was shot down by PM Morrison during the AUKUS announcement—had been repeatedly refused US naval reactor technology during the Cold War.

‘Anti-China’ Military Pact ‘Threatens Peace And Stability’ In Pacific

September 18, 2021 Kenny Stancil, Commondreams. , , ,
Anti-war advocates are denouncing Wednesday's formation of a trilateral military partnership through which the United States and the United Kingdom plan to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines—a long-term initiative broadly viewed as a challenge to China by Western powers determined to exert control over the Pacific region. Although Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and U.S. President Joe Biden did not mention Beijing during their joint video announcement of the so-called AUKUS alliance, "the move is widely seen as a response to China's expanding economic power, military reach, and diplomatic influence," the Washington Post reported. "China is believed to have six nuclear attack submarines, with plans to increase the fleet in the next decade."
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