The USA, UK, Australia formed AUKUS to counter China by building military capabilities and cooperation against China, with Australia to get a nuclear submarine fleet and American cruise missiles. AUKUS has been created quietly without the knowledge of the EU. How AUKUS and QUAD work together or separately remains to be seen. AUKUS is ironically a cooperation of English speaking countries.
President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled AUKUS citing security, without mentioning China openly. The US President said, “This initiative is about making sure that each of us has a modern capability, the most modern capabilities we need to maneuver and defend against rapidly evolving threats”. Australian Prime Minister said the three nations respected “freedom” and “the rule of law”, and that the alliance would help ensure security in the region.
China condemned the new formation as “extremely irresponsible” and called it a destabilization action. The EU remained quiet, but relatively upset at being left out of this development. Also, this has come at a time when Australia was buying French submarines for Euro 40 billion, whose order it has cancelled at the last minute for the US equipment. This has enraged France who has recalled its ambassadors from US and Australia.
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