US, UK and Australia Security pact triggers condemnation

A new security pact involving the United States, Britain and Australia has triggered controversy and condemnation. The US and UK announced this week that they will provide Australia with advanced technology to build nuclear powered submarines.

According to Press TV, based on their agreement, Australian Naval Forces will have atomic submarines that are much faster as they use nuclear propulsion systems and harder to detect than conventional fleets.

They can spend months submerged and target longer distances with their missiles. The leaders of the three countries hailed the new deal as a step that will make it easier to counter threats in the Indo Pacific region and repeatedly cited regional security concerns, which they said had grown significantly.

None of them mentioned China, but the move has been widely viewed as an initiative to counter Chinese influence in the region, including the contested resource rich South China Sea.

The United States and its allies make no secret of their intensified efforts to contain the growing Chinese influence and power in the region. Many observers believe the newly announced deal is in line with those efforts.

Meanwhile the development is expected to further sour relations between Beijing and Canberra. In recent years, political tensions have grown between the two over a number of issues, including Australia stance against Chinese telecom giant, Huawei.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Xiao Li Xiang, criticized what he called the US side alliance's obsolete cold war mentality and warned the three countries against moves that would hurt their own interests. Some Chinese media outlets went so far as to say that Australia had now turned itself into an adversary of China.

Meanwhile, China was not the only party infuriated by the new security pact. France condemned it too.

Australia will now scrap a deal with France to buy a dozen conventional submarines worth tens of billions of dollars.

ME