THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Australia won’t lose its sovereignty under the trilateral alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US know as AUKUS, according to the US president ’s top Indo-Pacific adviser, who has sought to clarify his prediction of a “melding” of Australian, US and UK military forces.
France had accused the US and Australia of betraying its trust when Australia cancelled a $40 billion contract with it consisting the sale of conventional submarines
As an alternative, Australia bought nuclear powered submarines from the US in a move that led to the creation of the AUKUS deal.
The pact is widely been perceived as a western attempt to curtail rising Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Kurt Campbell on Wednesday, December 1, said Joe Biden had raised Beijing’s trade strikes against Australian export sectors in his recent virtual meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, as an example of actions on the world stage that were “backfiring”.
Mr Campbell accused Beijing of waging “dramatic economic warfare” against Australia by imposing tariffs and unofficial import bans on Australian wine, barley, seafood and coal over the past 18 months. He argued Beijing’s preference “would have been to break Australia, to drive Australia to its knees” – but it would not succeed.
Mr Campbell, a top adviser to Biden as the coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the US National Security Council, is seen as a key figure in the formation of the Aukus deal security partnership, which was unveiled with much fanfare in September.
More countries could be welcomed into Australia’s security agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States according to one of the US President Joe Biden’s top advisors.
The AUKUS agreement commits the three nations to sharing sensitive military technology – including about nuclear submarines.
Campbell revealed there have already been requests from other nations to join the alliance.
“This is an indication of the excitement that AUKUS has stirred, many close allies have come to us in the immediate aftermath and said can we participate, can we engage,” Mr Campbell said.
“It is to the credit of Australia and Great Britain that they insisted yes, this is not a closed architecture, it’s an open architecture, we want to work with partners in these key areas of military innovation as we go forth.”
