Peter Dutton blasts China’s reaction to nuclear subs deal; Scott Morrison downplays prospect of war
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said Beijing’s ‘propaganda’ made the case for the new AUKUS pact, as Scott Morrison reacted to China’s furore.
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Defence Minister Peter Dutton slammed China for being “immature” about the new AUKUS alliance that would allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarine.
Speaking from the United States, Mr Dutton said he wasn’t surprised by the reaction from China, which called the deal “extremely irresponsible”.
“I think their comments are counter-productive, and immature, and frankly embarrassing,” Mr Dutton told Sky News in his first interview since the alliance was formed.
He said the “propaganda” that came out of China following the announcement “makes the case for us” to join with the United States and United Kingdom.
Dutton and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne met with their US counterparts in Washington DC and condemned China’s “aggressive” behaviour.
The pair appeared alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the alliance with the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom in a press conference on Thursday.
Speaking to News Corp in Washington, Mr Dutton said the Australian Government did not consider China’s scathing rebuke to the AUKUS announcement to be a threat.
“This is not the first time we’ve seen different outbursts from China in terms of Australia’s position,” he said.
“We are a proud democracy in our region. We stand with our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific to ensure enduring peace. And this collaboration makes it a safer region, and that’s the reality. No amount of propaganda can dismiss the facts.”
French officials in Washington, meanwhile, cancelled a gala at their US embassy to celebrate the two countries’ relationship in anger at what they called a decision that Donald Trump would have made.
The event to mark the “240th Anniversary of the Battle of the Capes” aboard a French frigate in Baltimore Friday night was called off in the immediate aftermath of the AUKUS announcement, The New York Times reported.
French foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Franceinfo radio that it was a “unilateral, brutal, unpredictable decision”.
“A knife in the back,” he said, adding that Australia rejected a deal that involved “a lot of technological transfers and a contract for a 50-year period.”
The US and Australian officials were also pressed on claims that they “backstabbed” France, which had been working for five years on a $90 billion submarine contract with Australia that will now be scrapped.
“The French have a version which was not superior to that operated by the US, the UK. And in the end, the decision that we have made is based on what is in the best interest of our national security and the prevailing security and peace within the Indo-Pacific.”
The AUKUS alliance comes as Australia has moved swiftly to contact Indo Pacific neighbours “at all levels”-including China – to outline the details and implications from the pact.
The move is partly to quell fears Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines and Tomahawk missiles was not a step toward conflict but rather would further regional stability and security.
Mr Dutton rejected the suggestion that Australia’s participation in the pact signalled that it was another step closer to a conflict with China.
“There is a deterrence element to our position,” Mr Dutton said.
“Australia takes its sovereignty very seriously.”
Ms Payne told News Corp that the government had repeatedly attempted to “open dialogue” with China’s President Xi Jinping but those offers had not been accepted.
“Dialogue allows the venting of any concerns,” she said.
“I regret that it’s consistently not taken up … mature actors would consider the value in a constructive way.”
PM REACTS TO CHINA’S AUKUS FURORE
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has responded to China’s backlash to the trilateral defence deal with the UK and US, saying the new alliance is in the best interests of Australian security.
“We are just taking the necessary actions we need to take to keep Australia safe and you have a peaceful and stable region in which we live,” Mr Morrison told Sunrise on Friday.
“The world is changing significantly in our part of the world, and deep friends and partners in the United States and the United Kingdom understand that.
“This assent right across the region, I believe, in the conversations I’ve had with regional leaders have been very positive, stabilising and a peaceful initiative that is very much in Australia’s interest and very necessary for Australia to undertake.”
In response to the evolving trade tensions on food and agricultural goods that have created significant hostility between Australia and the communist republic, Mr Morrison said it was about putting our nation first and protecting the long-term partnerships with other nations.
“I expect Australia to always do what we need to do to stand up for what we need to do to stand up for what we believe in,” he told the breakfast show hosts.
“To take actions to protect Australians and Australia’s interest and to do that in partnership with our great friends and partners across the region and of course, in the United States and United Kingdom.
Mr Morrison also played down any prospect of war with China while defending the US after criticism from former prime minister Paul Keating about the effectiveness of the American military.
On Thursday, Mr Keating questioned what chance the US had in a “full blown war against China” after it “couldn’t beat a bunch of Taliban rebels with AK-47s and pickup trucks”.
Mr Morrison told Channel 7 he “didn’t agree” with Mr Keating’s assertion.
“I know many in Labor who have those views but I don’t share them, I respect all the former prime ministers, but they had to govern for the times they were in and deal with the issues they faced at that time and I’m certainly doing that as Prime Minister now for the times we face.”
The Prime Minister denied claims made by the French media that French officials were not made aware of Australia’s trade deal with the UK and US before it was announced yesterday.
“He (French President Emmanuel Macron) was told the night before. He was fully aware of the decision,” Mr Morrison told Channel 9.
The Prime Minister also disagreed with criticism of the move to pull out of a submarine deal with France, saying AUKUS was made in the best interests of Australia.
“I don’t see it like that (as a mistake),” he said.
“I understand they’re disappointed and that’s very clear and we will work through those issues. We have many shared interests and that’s necessary.
“It was a good submarine, a conventional submarine but it no longer met our needs, so we had to do what was in our national interests.
“Now we can go further.”
‘EXTREMELY IRRESPONSIBLE: CHINA SLAMS AUKUS PACT
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the “extremely irresponsible” deal, describing it as the result of a “Cold War” mentality that “seriously undermines regional peace and stability and intensifies the arms race”.
“China always believes that any regional mechanism must go with the trend of the times for peace and development, and should be conducive to mutual trust and co-operation between regional countries,” Mr Lijian said at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.
“They should not target any third party or harm the party’s interests by forming an exclusive and closed small group.”
Mr Blinken condemned China’s “aggressive” behaviour towards Australia after it called for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.
“Beijing has seen over the past months that Australia will not back down, and threats of economic retaliation and pressure will not work,” Mr Blinken said at the press conference on Thursday.
“The world saw China’s aggressive response … the US will not leave Australia alone on the pitch.”
Mr Blinken told News Corp that the pact was “about enhancing security stability in the Indo Pacific”.
“It’s not aimed at any country,” he said.
“It is aimed at upholding the international order that both Australia and the US deeply believe in.”
Mr Austin added that the foursome had spoken in detail about China’s “destabilising activities and Beijing’s effort to coerce and intimidate other countries, contrary to established rules and norms”.
Mr Austin said that the US and its allies “remain clear-eyed of Beijing’s efforts to undermine the established international order”.
Both Defence and Department of Foreign Affairs have been in contact with military counterparts and diplomats to talk through the detail while ministers have contacted counterparts notably from Indonesia.
ADF chief General Angus Campbell spent the day calling his counterparts directly.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a conversation with Jacinda Ardern as our nearest and closest friend, tasking her with reassuring other nations particularly in the South West Pacific that might specifically feel strongly about nuclear technology.
His clear message: the submarines will be nuclear-powered not nuclear-armed and Australia would not need a reactor to fuel them with an off-the-shelf purchase of a sealed unit capable of powering a submarine for the rest of its operational life.
Ms Arden said at a press conference that the nuclear submarines would not be welcome in their territorial waters under a 1984 nuclear-free zone policy.
“I discussed the arrangement with Prime Minister Morrison last night,” Ms Ardern said at a news conference.
“I am pleased to see that the eye has been turned to our region from partners we work closely with. It’s a contested region and there is a role that others can play in taking an interest in our region. But the lens we will look at this from will include stability,” she said.
Chinese embassy officials in Canberra were briefed but Beijing leadership was still not accepting Australia’s calls although Mr Morrison was at pains to point out he would be content to personally walk his counterpart through the detail.
The Federal Government was not expecting blowback from China as was seen when Australia called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 that prompted a raft of trade and tariff issues.
HOW AUKUS WAS FORMED
For the past 18 months, a small hand-picked team of Australian defence officials including General Campbell have been meeting quietly with American and British counterparts to create AUKUS, branded the “next generation” trilateral pact.
The result was a stunning deal announced on Thursday morning by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mr Morrison, flagged as the most significant signing since World War 2.
As part of the pact, the US will share its nuclear technology – one of the US military’s most sought after and guarded secrets – with Australia to build eight new nuclear-powered submarines, to be constructed mostly in South Australia and WA but with electronic and specialist components coming from other states.
The shift means with “immediate effect”, Australia will dump the 2016 $90 billion deal it signed with France to build a conventional warfare submarine fleet.
The French are reportedly furious with the move but Mr Morrison in direct talks with President Emmanuel Macron made clear it was nothing personal, the “strategic outlook” had just changed which made the French conventional subs redundant to Australian needs.
The first rivet for the French Barracuda Attack Class struck had yet to be struck with the program plagued with delays and challenges and has already incurred significant costs; the tearing up of the deal is likely to cost even more in compensation with France still considering that penalty figure.
The AUKUS pact will now open the door to Australia acquiring a lot of other hardware including Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, long-range anti-ship missiles and precision strike and defence technology for land forces.
That changed strategic outlook has been the assertive and unrelenting military push by China into the Indo Pacific region, not just with the building of military island fortresses in the South China Sea but coercive threats against Taiwan and Japan, intimidation of the Philippines and Vietnam and the debt-trap diplomacy push with Pacific island nations.
New Zealand was left out of the AUKUS pact largely because of its antinuclear stance and its soft posturing with China even after it introduced trade blocks and tariffs against more than a dozen Australian exports from wine to wheat, meat to coal.
The AUKUS will not extend to nuclear weapons nor will it require any civil nuclear infrastructure with the nuclear component powering the submarine to be contained and sealed; Australia’s non-nuclear international proliferation treaty which it helped design will not need to be altered.
That should appease though who fear Australia ever becoming a nuclear State.
“We’re opening a new chapter in our friendship, and the first task of this partnership,” Mr Morrison said on Thursday.
President Biden thanked that “fellow Down Under”, seemingly momentarily forgetting Mr Morrison’s name, whom he said he would not entrust with the much vaunted American nuclear submarine secrets.
“We’re taking another historic step to deepen and formalise co-operation among all three of our nations, because we all recognise the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long-term,” Mr Biden said.
“This is about investing in our greatest source of strength, our alliances and updating them to better meet the threats of today and tomorrow.”
The nations will now take the next 18 months to work out how the tech will be shared, with the first Australian nuclear-powered submarine expected to be in the water by the end of the decade.
Nuclear submarines can stay out at sea and under the water for longer, have more of a stealth capability and in Australia’s case, will be armed with more powerful missiles.
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