Overnight United States President Joe Biden unveiled a brand-new defense pact with the United Kingdom and Australia. He was joined in the announcement virtually by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australia’s PM Scott Morrison.
The agreement, dubbed AUKUS, outlines ways in which the United Kingdom and Australia will assist the United States in its military campaign in the Indo-Pacific. This development is especially important now that the US has been engaged in a diplomatic conflict with China for several years.
There have been disputes between the world’s two largest economies in the South China Sea, and Australia seems to have the best positioning to represent US interests in the region. Meanwhile, the UK has been seeking a closer relationship with the United States ever since Brexit came into effect.
The US and the UK will now cooperate with Australia to equip Australian submarines with nuclear weapons in order to boost the region’s defenses.
The response to the announcement was met with criticism by the European Union, which felt excluded from the negotiations of what might be the most important military pact of the decade. Previously, the EU was seeking to gain a mediator role between the US and China due to its slightly better relationship with the latter.
While the United States has been waging a trade war against China since the Trump era, the EU perceives China as a strong economic ally and has actively tried to improve its relationship with it. This hasn’t always been easy, considering EU member states have also spoken against China’s actions in Hong Kong and China’s human rights domestic violations.
EU leaders are unhappy that the US, the UK, and Australia completely left out the bloc in their talks, which makes Europe seem irrelevant in the global political scene. Moreover, France is especially irked because Australia had to cancel a contract to buy submarines from a French manufacturer before the pact was signed. Now the US will supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines instead.
