Czech Republic backs AUKUS as good for European security too
Australia’s deal to acquire nuclear-powered submarines in co-operation with the US and Britain has received strong endorsement from a key continental European government.
Australia’s deal to acquire nuclear-powered submarines in co-operation with the US and Britain has received strong endorsement from a key continental European government.
The Czech Republic believes the AUKUS agreement makes a positive contribution to global security.
Jan Lipavksy, the Czech Republic’s Foreign Minister, told The Weekend Australian: “We very much support the AUKUS initiative since it affects European security as well as Indo-Pacific security.”
In an interview in his office in Cerninsky Palace in Prague, Mr Lipavsky called for closer strategic co-operation among democracies and US allies. “AUKUS, the US and Europe need to be working together,” Mr Lipavsky said.
Australian officials are deeply involved in working out with the International Atomic Energy Agency the safeguard arrangements for the nuclear material needed to power the submarines.
Although this is a technical matter which is reportedly going well, China, Russia and some other nations are trying to undermine AUKUS and claim it breaches nuclear non-proliferation principles. Public support for AUKUS from other nations, though not directly affecting the IAEA negotiations, is nonetheless extremely helpful as background to Australia making the case for the nuclear non-proliferation credentials of the AUKUS submarines.
Despite the two nations being far apart geographically, Mr Lipavksy said Australia was very close to the Czech Republic culturally and Australia was a country Czechs felt comfortable with.
Mr Lipavsky has been a leading European voice demanding that Russia withdraw from all the territory it has conquered in Ukraine, including Crimea.
He has also argued that the fate of Ukraine’s territorial integrity will have implications for China’s actions towards Taiwan. In the past he has criticised “China’s aggressive behaviour in its neighbourhood”.
He told The Weekend Australian that “China is a threat and an opportunity at the same time”.
Mr Lipavsky also warned that it was risky for democratic societies to become dependent on nations like Russia and China in critical supply chains.
“We see China has its own ambitions to reshape the international order,” Mr Lipavsky said.
But he argued that the Czech Republic could help other nations achieve resilience against China.
“It doesn’t mean we’ll be cutting off all business relations (with China), but in artificial intelligence, cyber security, renewables, critical medicines, etc, society needs to be resilient.”
The Czech Republic maintains a strong trading relationship with Taiwan, as well as official-level dialogue, and this has annoyed Beijing in the past. Nonetheless, Mr Lipavsky also stressed the importance of maintaining dialogue with Beijing.
He said he hoped the NATO summit in Lithuania in July would provide a “clear path to NATO membership for Ukraine”, adding that Vladimir Putin represented Russian imperialism, which was the greatest threat to European security.
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