Jakarta warns UN about AUKUS ‘nuclear proliferation risks’

Indonesia has warned that the sharing of nuclear propulsion technology threatens ‘the sanctity’ of the UN Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

Assistant Trade and Manufacturing Minister Tim Ayres. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Indonesia has warned that the sharing of nuclear propulsion technology threatens “the sanctity” of the UN Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, as China said Australia’s AUKUS submarine ambitions posed “severe nuclear proliferation risks”.

The criticism was levelled in speeches to the UN NPT review conference in New York, where Australia said its nuclear submarine partnership with the US and Britain would “set the highest possible non-proliferation standards for naval nuclear pro­pulsion”.

Indonesia’s representative, Tri Tharyat, didn’t name Australia, but warned the NPT’s “integrity and credibility” were at stake.

“The use of nuclear energy for military activities is particularly concerning, as it poses threats to the sanctity of the NPT and carries destructive potentials with humanitarian and environmental consequences,” he said.

Mr Tharyat said it was vital NPT verification and monitoring processes were tightened in the interests of “saving lives”.

China’s arms control ambassador, Fu Cong, told the conference the AUKUS plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines demonstrated the “double standards” of Australia, the US and Britain.

The trilateral nuclear-powered submarine deal “poses severe nuclear proliferation risks, in contravention of the object and purpose of the NPT,” Mr Fu said.

“The review conference should conduct in-depth discussions on its implications in all aspects, including its challenges to the IAEA safeguards system, in order to firmly uphold the international non-proliferation regime.”

The AUKUS partners are pushing back hard at criticism of the nuclear submarine partnership, with Australia’s Assistant Trade and Manufacturing Minister Tim Ayres saying the three ­nations would “not simply uphold but strengthen the integrity of the (NPT) regime”.

He said the partners were confident they would provide the International Atomic Energy Agency “with full confidence at every step of the submarines’ life cycles that no diversion of nuclear material is taking place”.

“At the heart of the NPT was always the goal of a world without nuclear weapons – a goal to which Australia remains profoundly committed,” Mr Ayres said.

He said the challenges posed by nuclear weapons “have never been greater” and singled out ­Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its ­“nuclear brinkmanship”, North Korea’s “destabilising” ­nuclear program, and Iran’s failure to comply with NPT safeguards.