The US, Britain, and Australia announced the AUKUS alliance for the Indo-Pacific on 15 September 2021 to take on the threats of the 21st century and allow for greater sharing of defence capabilities, including help Australia builds eight nuclear-powered submarines, in a bid to counter China’s growing power in the strategically vital region. US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison in a joint statement said their move will promote stability in the Indo-Pacific and support of their shared values and interests.
As per the announcement of the White House this partnership is about strategic interests of these countries, upholding the international rules-based order, and promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
Why India could gain ‘major leverage’ as Australia, UK, US join hands to take on China
With this “alliance” of sorts between these three countries, India, an ally of all of them as part of the Indo-Pacific construct, is also expected to gain some leverage.
India is part of the Quad framework that has the US and Australia also in it, with Japan being the fourth member of that grouping. The Quad is soon going to have an in-person meeting of leaders in Washington, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the US.
Australia is now definitely willing to play a larger role in this region, which I think is good for India as an ally… The more your partners gain strength, the better it is for India.
India and Australia recently held their first round of 2+2 dialogue in an effort to deepen their defence and strategic ties. In 2020, India and Australia had signed a defence pact — the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement. Besides, India is going to participate in Australia’s biggest wargame, Talisman Sabre, in 2023. The US is already part of it.
AUKUS is a good thing because it keeps Beijing distracted in the maritime domain and on its eastern flank and possibly less focused on the land dispute to its west.
China’s reaction to AUKUS
China sharply criticised the trilateral alliance, saying such grouping has no future and will gravely undermine regional stability and aggravate the arms race and hurt international non-proliferation efforts. It urged these countries to abandon the obsolete Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical concept, respect regional people’s aspirations and do more things conducive to regional peace, stability and development, Zhao said.
China said that they do not seek conflict and that the American President Joe Biden had spoken with President Xi just a few days ago, and were committed to maintaining an open high-level dialogue between the leaders.
The evolving situation in the Indo-Pacific region in the wake of China’s increasing military muscle-flexing has become a major talking point among leading global powers. The US has been favouring making Quad a security architecture to check China’s growing assertiveness.
French feel let down
France, an ally of the United States, had already a contract to build submarines for Australia, a deal which now stands cancelled has also expressed its outrage at the AUKUS alliance. France will lose a nearly USD 100 billion deal to build diesel submarines for Australia under the terms of the new AUKUS initiative, which will see the US and UK help Australia construct nuclear-powered ones.
The announcement of AUKUS has come a week before a meeting of Quad leaders to be hosted by US President Biden in Washington on September 24. The meeting will also be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Morrison, and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga.