AUKUS nuclear submarine deal sparks anger from senator, ex-PM

CANBERRA — Australian Senator Jordon Steele-John has slammed the government's nuclear submarine agreement, amid complaints that the United States' move could clear the way for bad actors to escape nuclear oversight in the future.

Earlier in March, under the so-called AUKUS trilateral security partnership, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak jointly announced Australia's acquisition of nuclear submarines.

Australian officials have estimated the cost of the submarines at between A$268 billion and A$368 billion ($178-$245 billion) over three decades. Eight AUKUS-class submarines will be built in Adelaide in South Australia, with the first to be completed by 2042.

In a recent speech to Parliament, Steele-John, a member of the Australian Greens, criticized the agreement, declaring "it is one of the most catastrophic foreign policy decisions an Australian government has ever entered into".

He said for the A$368 billion spent on eight nuclear-powered submarines, Australians will "get the privilege of becoming a nuclear waste dump" and see their public money subsidize British and US defense manufacturers, adding that the deal "forever shackles us to the United States of America".

Steele-John's comments echoed the sentiment of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating, who slammed the AUKUS pact one day after it was announced as "the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since the former Labor leader Billy Hughes sought to introduce conscription to augment Australian forces in World War I".

Pandora's box

Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has pledged to be "very demanding" in overseeing the planned transfer from the US to Australia.

On March 17, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the US, the United Kingdom and Australia to stop putting their selfish geopolitical agenda above nuclear nonproliferation obligations and stop coercing the IAEA into endorsing their nuclear submarine cooperation.

Wang said the AUKUS group is putting up an Anglo-Saxon clique to advance nuclear submarine cooperation and other cutting-edge military technology cooperation.

"This is typical Cold War mentality and a move that opens a Pandora's box, which will seriously impact regional and global peace and security," Wang said.

"If this attempt succeeds, it forebodes unprecedented threats and challenges to the decadeslong stability and prosperity in the region."

Meanwhile, Australia said it will also buy up to 220 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US after the US State Department approved the sale last week.

Australian officials earlier said the new nuclear-powered submarines would be able to fire the Tomahawk missiles.

The Australian missile purchase comes with a price tag of nearly $900 million. The prime contractor will be Arizona-based Raytheon Missiles and Defense.

Xinhua - Agencies