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Business News/ News / India/  Australia to ally with US,UK to strengthen security in Indo-Pacific region
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Australia to ally with US,UK to strengthen security in Indo-Pacific region

The partnership was collectively unveiled by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British PM Boris Johnson on Thursday. Under AUKUS, the US and the UK will support Australia’s Royal Navy in building nuclear-powered submarines by transferring technology

In its reaction on Thursday, China slammed the security alliance saying it will gravely undermine regional stability and aggravate the arms race. (REUTERS)Premium
In its reaction on Thursday, China slammed the security alliance saying it will gravely undermine regional stability and aggravate the arms race. (REUTERS)

NEW DELHI: Australia on Friday said its decision to join a security alliance with the US and UK earlier this week was aimed at developing capabilities that could help India and other counties in deterring challenges threatening peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell said China's massive military modernisation programme was posing challenges to the strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific and the intensification of great power competition in the region. These had prompted the Scott Morrison government to join hands with the US and the UK to launch the ambitious AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) security partnership. The partnership was collectively unveiled by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British PM Boris Johnson on Thursday. Under AUKUS, the US and the UK will support Australia’s Royal Navy in building nuclear-powered submarines by transferring technology.

In its reaction on Thursday, China slammed the security alliance saying it will gravely undermine regional stability and aggravate the arms race.

O’Farrell said Australia had kept India in the loop before it went for the enhanced trilateral partnership with the US and the UK. Before the announcement was made on Thursday, Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. Foreign Ministers S. Jaishankar and Marise Payne and Defence Ministers Rajnath Singh and Peter Dutton also spoke to each other.

O'Farrell also clarified that the AUKUS would not affect the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad that comprises India, the US, Australia and Japan – rather advance peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.

AUKUS will strengthen Australia’s relationship “bilaterally, trilaterally and quadrilaterally across the region,." and ensure that Australia has capabilities that can “contribute" to capabilities of India and other partners, so that they can stand up against those “behaviours that threaten peace in the Indo-Pacific today and in the future," the high commissioner said.

“The fact is that the decision was arrived at after deep consideration by my government based on a sober assessment of the capability required to meet a more challenging strategic environment," O’Farrell told a group of journalists.

“As a three-ocean nation, nuclear-powered submarines will provide Australia with the capability it now believes it needs for its defence because they can travel faster, they can travel for a longer range and they have greater power and endurance," the high commissioner said.

O’Farrell said this an “environment that we share with India where great power competition is intensifying; where territorial tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan and elsewhere are becoming more challenging; and Indo-Pacific investment in military capability is proceeding at an unprecedented levels".

“Of course, the latter point is driven by China, which has the largest military modernisation programme underway in the world," he said.

"The decision reflects a much more challenging strategic environment, an environment we share with India, where great power competition is intensifying, where territorial tensions in the South China Sea, Taiwan and elsewhere are becoming more challenging," O’Farrell told reporters.

"So strengthening Australia's defence capabilities through nuclear-powered submarines will form part of Australia's contribution to a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and that capability will increase Australia's strategic weight and allow us to more effectively shape our region's future trajectory," he said.

The high commissioner said Australia was aiming for an inclusive regional order where the rights of all states are respected, whether they are big states or small states. "We want to contribute to strategic reassurance measures that ensure no one country believes they can advance their strategic ambitions through conflict," he said in a clear reference to China.

Asked about strong reaction of France to the new security alliance, O'Farrell said it should not impact that country's overall engagement in the Indo-Pacific. France has been critical of the security arrangement in part because it had an agreement with the Morrison government to build nuclear powered submarines in a deal estimated to be worth around $ 90 billion.

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Published: 17 Sep 2021, 06:34 PM IST
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