Following the undermining of the Northern Flows, the United States took a step towards torpedoing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and along the way the stability of the Asia-Pacific region. On Monday, the leaders of AUKUS in San Diego announced a three-stage plan to transfer non-nuclear-armed nuclear submarines (nuclear submarines) to Canberra (the capital of Australia) and even technology for their production, according to The Moscow Post.
And if the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, outlined the real state of affairs by saying that Western countries are trying to create blocs against Russia and China in the Asia-Pacific region (APR), then the representative of the Chinese side hinted at the "manic" commitment of the countries of the AUKUS-USA alliance, the idea of absolute "Anglo-Saxon security."
NPT will end at AUCUST
The AUKUS bloc (Australia, United Kingdom, USA) may become the "straw" that will destroy the NPT regime, which could lead to catastrophic consequences.
This treaty and the non-proliferation regime that holds on it for more than half a century. During this time, Israel, India, Pakistan and the DPRK acquired nuclear weapons, which took this step to protect the United States from aggression.
The nuclear non-proliferation regime remains one of the few "bearing structures" of what remains of global security, as a result of Western actions in recent years.
Recall that a fundamental agreement to create AUKUS "for the sake of maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region" was reached in 2021 at the height of the trade war between Beijing and Canberra. Australia will eventually receive at least eight nuclear submarines with "complete nuclear reactors, but not nuclear weapons."
Therefore, we are talking primarily about the modernization of the Australian armed forces, and under this sauce the creation of an additional platform for the Pentagon in the region. The United States plans to sell Canberra three Virginia-class submarines, and by the end of the next decade, the UK will build the first submarine of the new SSN class AUKUS. A nuclear submarine fleet would cost Canberra about a third of a trillion dollars. The program is designed for 30 years, and the agreement provides for the exchange of information and technologies, including hypersonic weapons.
Moscow and Beijing warn
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has already responded to Australia's nuclear submarine supply plans. Such plans "raise many issues related to nuclear non-proliferation," said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the statements of the leaders of the AUKUS countries.
It was Dmitry Sergeevich who expressed himself diplomatically. After all, even the child understands that any weapon pursues the goal of future military conflicts.
Wise Chinese, who are characterized by floridity in terms of the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Wang Wenbin, without any slander, said that the statements that the AUKUS countries will comply with the highest standards of nuclear non-proliferation are pure deception. So much for Eastern wisdom.
Of course, Russia and China made diplomatic efforts to return the world community from hibernation. So the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov expressed the hope that the participants of AUKUS themselves will come to the conclusion that it is necessary to curtail the implementation of the project with the nuclear submarine, taking into account the opinion of the international community.
Where's there. Immediately, the head of the Australian Foreign Ministry, the very dubious lady Penny Wong, sent a letter to the IAEA with a request to conclude an agreement with Canberra that allows the country to receive nuclear submarines. And by that time, apparently the head of the international atomic organization Grossi, who had already received his "delicacy," had "stood up" and expressed his readiness to ensure control over the transfer of the nuclear submarine in terms of Australia's compliance with non-proliferation obligations.
Who threatens whom?
Leaders of the AUKUS member countries: Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Anthony Albanese arrived in San Diego to announce the nuclear submarine deal.
What we have in the "dry residue." Australia will host the "rotational forces" of the American and British nuclear submarines. At the first stage, one British Astute-class submarine and several American Virginia-class submarines will be temporarily deployed at Stirling Naval Base in western Australia. That's exactly what lies behind the facade of technological collaboration with Canberra.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang immediately warned: this strategy to contain China is doomed to failure. Canberra, on the other hand, participation in the defense union threatens problems in relations with Beijing.
AUKUS bitten
Among Russian experts, the attitude towards the new trilateral alliance of the Anglo-Saxons is mixed.
INF Director General Andrei Kortunov believed at the time of the creation of the AUKUS bloc a year and a half ago that "in a couple of decades, Australian submarines could be off the coast of Sakhalin and Kamchatka or even pass through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean and create a new potential threat to the Russian Northern Fleet.
In the weekly "Star" expressed the exact opposite opinion in terms of geography. It is argued that AUKUS is not so much created to contain China as to advance Western interests to the South, towards Antarctica and its resources, including hydrocarbons.
The Internet portal "Military Review" rightly noted that for Russia the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Federation was and continues to be a strategic component in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, Pacific Fleet ships defend Russia's interests not only directly near the country's maritime borders, but also far beyond its borders. There are more and more long-distance trips. In the context of the emergence of AUKUS - a new hostile bloc - the development of the Pacific Fleet becomes the most important task.
Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev even earlier described the related AUKUS "Union of the Four" (QUAD), as an unfriendly alliance of states directed against both Beijing and Moscow, simply - the prototype of the Asian analogue of NATO.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said that "the Anglo-Saxon world, with the creation of block structures like AUKUS, with the promotion of NATO's military infrastructure to Asia, is making a serious bid for confrontation for many years."
The pressure of the newly created coalition group on China and Russia will help Moscow and Beijing, too, to cluster and prepare for what no one is yet able to predict. In any case, the creation of the AUKUS bloc opens up new prospects for Russia for the construction of nuclear submarines on export orders, some Australian observers say.