Expressing its “firm opposition” to Monday’s announcement on Australia’s purchase of nuclear-powered submarines, China’s government on March 14 slammed the Australia, United States and United Kingdom (AUKUS) partnership as going “down the wrong and dangerous path” and undermining international nuclear non-proliferation.
“We’ve repeatedly said that the establishment of the so-called AUKUS security partnership between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia to promote cooperation on nuclear submarines and other cutting-edge military technologies is a typical Cold War mentality. It will only exacerbate arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and hurt regional peace and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in Beijing.
“The latest joint statement issued by the U.S., the U.K. and Australia shows that the three countries, for their own geopolitical interests, have totally disregarded the concerns of the international community and gone further down the wrong and dangerous path. Nuclear submarine cooperation between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia involves the transfer of large amounts of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium from nuclear weapon states to a non-nuclear weapon state, which poses a serious nuclear proliferation risk and violates the purpose and object of the NPT.”
On the three countries’ on Monday committing to follow the highest non-proliferation standards, Mr. Wang said it was “nothing but a high-sounding rhetoric to deceive the world.”
“In essence, itis a move to coerce the IAEA Secretariat into making safeguards exemption arrangements, which would seriously undermine the authority of the body. China is firmly opposed to this,” he added.
The deal, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, would damage the “integrity, efficacy and authority of the NPT”. “The safeguards issues related to AUKUS concern the interests of all member states of the IAEA and should be jointly discussed and decided by all member states through a transparent, open and inclusive intergovernmental process,” Mr. Wang said. “Pending the consensus reached by all IAEA member states, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia should not proceed with relevant cooperation, and the IAEA Secretariat should not have consultation with the three countries on the so-called safeguards arrangements for their nuclear submarine cooperation.”
