Australia, UK and US trilateral nuclear submarine cooperation (AUKUS) was designed to serve the US geopolitical agenda of introducing group politics and Cold War confrontation in the Asia-Pacific with military deterrence. Its aim is to create a replica of NATO in Asia and the Pacific, which is contrary to peace and stability in the region, the Chinese embassy in Great Britain announced on Friday.
In March, Australia, the US and Great Britain presented a project to create a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the AUKUS pact, Canberra will acquire its first nuclear-powered submarines, at least three, from the US, and the allies will also work to create a new fleet using cutting-edge technology, including UK-made Rolls-Royce reactors.
“The AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the first time that nuclear-weapon states transfer naval nuclear power reactors and highly enriched weapons-grade uranium to a non-nuclear-weapon state,” the embassy noted.
It added that the current safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is unable to provide effective safeguards, so such cooperation poses serious risks of nuclear proliferation, threatens the authority of the IAEA and strikes the agency system of protective measures.
Source: CRI Online