CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (AAP) – Dr.Majid Khan-Australia’s defense minister said Tuesday that a deal to buy nuclear-powered attack submarines from the United States is necessary to counter the region’s largest conventional military buildup since World War II. said there is.
Australian officials say the deal could cost up to $245 billion over the next 30 years and create 20,000 jobs. It comes at a time when China is rapidly building its own military.
Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marls said he had made more than 60 phone calls to regional and world leaders in the months leading up to Monday’s deal announcement. Australia even offered to provide updates on China, he said. “We provided a briefing. I didn’t attend the briefing with China,” Marles said.
Asked by reporters whether China declined the briefing or did not respond at all, Marles said:
“I’m not used to this reaction.”
Without specifically mentioning China, Mr Marles said Australia would have to deal with a military buildup in the Pacific.
“If we don’t do this, history will ruin us,” he said.
China says the deal poses serious risks to nuclear proliferation and spurs an arms race.
“We urge the U.S., Britain and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, faithfully fulfill their international obligations and do more to contribute to regional peace and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a daily briefing Thursday.
Marles said Australia intended to increase its military capabilities and to spend more on defense in the future, something it wanted to be transparent about.
“You know, our concern about other military buildups is that they happen in a manner which is opaque, and where neighbors are left uneasy as to why it is occurring,” he said. “That is why we have gone to such an effort to make clear exactly why we are taking the steps that we’re taking.”
U.S. President Joe Biden announced the deal in San Diego along with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Albanese said the agreement “represents the biggest single investment in Australia’s defense capability in all of our history.”
Australia is buying three, and possibly up to five, Virginia-class boats as part of deal. As part of the so-called AUKUS partnership, next-generation submarines will be built in the UK and Australia with US technology and assistance.
Australia estimates that the transaction will cost her A$268-368 billion (US$178-245 billion).
Biden emphasized that the ship will not carry nuclear weapons. Albanese said he did not believe the deal would affect relations with China, which he said had improved in recent months.
Her secretly brokered AUKUS deal involves the Australian government canceling her $66 billion contract for a fleet of French-built conventional submarines, and will take months to resolve. It provoked a diplomatic dispute within the Western Alliance that lasted. Mars appeared eager to continue on Tuesday.
“Operationally, we are building a relationship with France, significantly increasing the pace of our military exercises and greatly expanding our access to our bases on the Australian continent, but France’s presence in the Pacific and Indian “Access to the base has also been greatly expanded.”
