AUKUS pact will intensify arms race, proliferation risks: China

Beijing, Oct 21 (PTI) China on Tuesday criticised the renewal of the major nuclear-powered submarine pact, known as AUKUS (Australia, UK, US), saying it opposes bloc confrontation and anything that increases the risk of nuclear proliferation and exacerbates the arms race.

Seen as an effort to counter China in the Asia Pacific, the three countries announced a historic security pact in 2021 under which Australia will be helped to build nuclear-powered submarines for the first time, using US technology.

The pact will also cover artificial intelligence, cyber and quantum technologies.

China has been vocal in its criticism, saying the AUKUS, together with the QUAD alliance between the US, India, Japan and Australia, was aimed at countering its rise.

"China has made clear more than once its position on the so-called trilateral security partnership between the US, the UK and Australia designed to advance cooperation on nuclear submarines and other cutting-edge military technologies," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday.

"We oppose bloc confrontation and anything that increases the risk of nuclear proliferation and exacerbates arms race," he told a media briefing here when asked for his reaction to the AUKUS revival.

After months of uncertainty and speculation that Washington may walk away from AUKUS, which was negotiated by President Joe Biden, President Donald Trump, in his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday, said he has decided to move full steam ahead with it.

Media reports said that under the AUKUS pact, Canberra has committed billions to develop submarine and naval shipbuilding facilities in Western Australia, designed to host and maintain the US and British nuclear-powered submarines while revving up construction of new ones.

The new infrastructure would turn Australia into a hub for allies and their submarines in the region, all aimed as a bulwark against China, according to US media reports.

The two leaders also announced a new pact to develop Australian mines with rare-earth deposits to counter the monopoly held on them by China, which severely restricted their exports.

The US and Australia have also signed a deal to boost supplies of rare earths and other critical minerals.

Albanese said the deal would support a pipeline of USD 8.5 billion "ready-to-go" projects that would expand his country's mining and processing abilities of the precious metals.

China accounts for about 70 per cent of the world's rare earths mining, but controls about 90 per cent of their processing, which makes it virtually the sole supplier of the precious metals used in a host of modern equipment, including automobiles, electronics, wind energy, and defence.

China’s rare earth metals are much in demand as the US, the EU and India are its top importers. PTI KJV ZH ZH