NST Leader: Nuclear alliance
US President Joe Biden participates is a virtual press conference on national security with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on September 15. - AFP PIC
The United States and the United Kingdom, two nations that do not want others to have nuclear weapons, are helping Australia get just that.
Sure, Canberra is acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, not nuclear bombs, but still the lethality of the stuff is no different. Oblivious to the hypocrisy of their move, US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison beamed the news in a joint-televised message to the world on Thursday.
The trilateral military alliance dubbed AUKUS, named after the initials of the three countries, will have some dangerous consequences for the already volatile Indo-Pacific region. We see at least two.
Firstly, AUKUS has made war with China even more likely. Secondly, AUKUS may be the final nail in the coffin of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Start with China. Beijing has already fired the first salvo, though none of the three leaders named China in their statements. But no one would have missed Biden's "free and open Indo-Pacific" being aimed at China's military moves in the South China Sea. Whatever the message of Biden, Johnson or Morrison, Beijing sees AUKUS as being unmistakably aimed at China. Nothing else matters.
Biden, who was reported to have called President Xi Jinping recently, to express his worry that China or the US may stumble into a war, may founder into one. If The Guardian is right, China has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their "cold war" mentality or risk hurting their own interests. What exactly Beijing means by "hurting their own interests" is anybody's guess, but it surely will start with a trade war before it becomes a real one.
Besides, the first of the eight nuclear-powered submarines may not be ready — the plan is to build them in Adelaide — for another 10 years. Unless, as Biden fears, the US and China stumble into a war much earlier. Accidental wars aren't impossible. World War 1 was one.
AUKUS may have also made the NPT burial-ready. The NPT — whose ultimate aim is nuclear disarmament — has had a troubled history. The US, the first and only rogue-state to drop atomic bombs, and Russia — the two initiators of the NPT — couldn't see eye-to-eye after World War 2. The US wanted to keep its nukes while denying the same to others whereas Russia wanted both to disarm.
The position hasn't changed much except that the list of countries with nuclear weapons has grown with great help from the US and Russia. Today, nine countries — the US, Russia, the UK, China, France, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea — between them have more than 13,000 nuclear warheads. Yet the United Nations duplicitously declares only five nations to possess nuclear weapons.
Is it any wonder why Iran and North Korea don't trust the UN's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)? How is it that the IAEA isn't asking Israel to disarm as vehemently as it is asking Iran to do so? Let us be blunt. Those who can't be just shouldn't be a watchdog.
Duplicity such as this and the hypocrisy of the nuclear-armed nations are a formula for war, not peace. Australia's international lawyers may have found a loophole in the NPT to sneak in eight nuclear-powered submarines into Adelaide.
So can Iran siddle a few into Bandar Abbas. If the goose can kill the NPT, so can the gander.
The United States and the United Kingdom, two nations that do not want others to have nuclear weapons, are helping Australia get just that.
Sure, Canberra is acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, not nuclear bombs, but still the lethality of the stuff is no different. Oblivious to the hypocrisy of their move, US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison beamed the news in a joint-televised message to the world on Thursday.
The trilateral military alliance dubbed AUKUS, named after the initials of the three countries, will have some dangerous consequences for the already volatile Indo-Pacific region. We see at least two.
Firstly, AUKUS has made war with China even more likely. Secondly, AUKUS may be the final nail in the coffin of the non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Start with China. Beijing has already fired the first salvo, though none of the three leaders named China in their statements. But no one would have missed Biden's "free and open Indo-Pacific" being aimed at China's military moves in the South China Sea. Whatever the message of Biden, Johnson or Morrison, Beijing sees AUKUS as being unmistakably aimed at China. Nothing else matters.
Biden, who was reported to have called President Xi Jinping recently, to express his worry that China or the US may stumble into a war, may founder into one. If The Guardian is right, China has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their "cold war" mentality or risk hurting their own interests. What exactly Beijing means by "hurting their own interests" is anybody's guess, but it surely will start with a trade war before it becomes a real one.
Besides, the first of the eight nuclear-powered submarines may not be ready — the plan is to build them in Adelaide — for another 10 years. Unless, as Biden fears, the US and China stumble into a war much earlier. Accidental wars aren't impossible. World War 1 was one.
AUKUS may have also made the NPT burial-ready. The NPT — whose ultimate aim is nuclear disarmament — has had a troubled history. The US, the first and only rogue-state to drop atomic bombs, and Russia — the two initiators of the NPT — couldn't see eye-to-eye after World War 2. The US wanted to keep its nukes while denying the same to others whereas Russia wanted both to disarm.
The position hasn't changed much except that the list of countries with nuclear weapons has grown with great help from the US and Russia. Today, nine countries — the US, Russia, the UK, China, France, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea — between them have more than 13,000 nuclear warheads. Yet the United Nations duplicitously declares only five nations to possess nuclear weapons.
Is it any wonder why Iran and North Korea don't trust the UN's nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)? How is it that the IAEA isn't asking Israel to disarm as vehemently as it is asking Iran to do so? Let us be blunt. Those who can't be just shouldn't be a watchdog.
Duplicity such as this and the hypocrisy of the nuclear-armed nations are a formula for war, not peace. Australia's international lawyers may have found a loophole in the NPT to sneak in eight nuclear-powered submarines into Adelaide.
So can Iran siddle a few into Bandar Abbas. If the goose can kill the NPT, so can the gander.
NPT died decades ago, some say it was stillborn, so please don't blame AUKUS.
ReplyDeleteIf we want to talk about nails in coffins here is the list of 5000 yo Bullyland Nails, nuklear Boms they tested AFTER they signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992.
5 October 1993 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 80 kt
10 June 1994 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 90 kt
7 October 1994 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 90 kt
15 May 1995 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 95 kt
17 August 1995 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 90 kt
Prompted Japanese Diet to lodge a protest and freeze grants to China.
8 June 1996 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 50 kt
8 June 1996 Beishan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead
29 July 1996 Nanshan, Lop Nur, China DF-31 warhead 3 kt
UNQUOTE
And as pointed out earlier Frenchie continued the Mururoa testing till 1996, long after they signed NPT, which was also in 1992.
So Stop This Bullyshitting.
NPT died decades ago!
DeleteYet yr uncle Sam is using NPT as the base to argue for the nuclear program of Iran while keeping very silence about his role in helping Israel to built up its nuclrar arsenals!
How much more twisted lies u want to propagate for it uncle Sam?
Oooop… blurred mfer u have again acting tak tau about yr f*cked deterrent dogma as expounded by yr uncle Sam!
Remember that underlying principle of positive feedback chain reaction in military competition as the unspoken core of deterrence? Indirectly benefit those US military hardware merchants, too.
Guess u DON'T!
That why u can be so recalcitrant in chanting for yr uncle Sam's continuous act in nuclear proliferations till NOW while cursing China/France for their long stopped nuclear testings!
Malaysia's credibility to take speak on USA and China matters disintegrated the day Malaysia's foreign minister called China ( or China's Foreign Minister - the difference matters little ) Da Ge Big Brother.
ReplyDeleteMalaysia is being ignored, just like other countries regarded as little Beijing Client States
Wakakakakaka…
ReplyDeleteAND there r mfers here calling that WASP inspired pact as none of yr business as in non-interference policy!
How aneh-ised selective r these mfers.
From Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996 :
ReplyDelete"Provoking China to please the US" - https://johnmenadue.com/provoking-china-to-please-the-us/
Excerpts :
# The Morrison government is wantonly leading Australia into a strategic dead end by its needless provocations against China
# (China) is not attacking or forcibly incorporating countries into a grand union, nor is it exporting some kind of of universal ideology
# (China) does not threaten nuclear Armageddon on a daily basis...Its great problem is that it is now a state as large as the United States, and with the potential of being larger - an unforgivable sin for American triumphalists. And that sin has radiated over those Australians with a fawning, obsequious attitude to the US.
# This is what all this warmongering is about - China's presence and scale. China's rise is simply not in the American playbook - its very existence and its scale is an affront to the America's notion of itself as the exceptional state, the proselytiser of divine providence.
The French response to this Troika Arrangement tell us that they were as surprised as we were.
ReplyDeleteThe Anglo trio did not even bother to prepare and appease France before throwing them under the bus. There goes Biden's plan to 'bring back our allies' for which Trump had unceremoniously and gleefully went out of his way to thumb his nose at them and brutally told them to pull their weight.
France is a key member of both NATO and the EU. It is also one of the five permanent members of the UN security council. The French are incensed enough to recall their ambassadors from the culprits.
The French reaction suggests that the EU may pursue policies independent of the Anglophones when it comes to matters dealing with China and even Russia.
The West appears to be splitting into two camps - the Anglophones and the rest. Brexit paved the way for a 4-Eyes alliance : Australia, Canada, US and the UK ( all distant cousins ). New Zealand under Ardern is staying put, so far.
The problem with the 4-Eyes is that they all face pressing domestic problems but they rather pool their resources to engage in an arms race with China instead, with the Oz now shelling billions for the subs, much to the delight of the US Military Industrial Complex. It would appear that the funding by the MIC to Australian think tank ASPI and the like etc are now bearing fruit, with the politicians eagerly stuffing themselves with those little scraps coming the main table. This money can be better spent on domestic issues that have been ignored far too long.
Let's Not Be Naive. Nuclear Powered Navies is The Way To Go, Led by 5000 yo Bullyland who will soon have a Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier, even before Oz will have Nuclear Powered Subs.
ReplyDeleteIs Anyone Concerned or Complaining to Bullyland? Non Proliferation Treaty? Bullyshit.
QUOTE
China’s Next Aircraft Carrier Will Be A Nuclear-Powered Monster
Peter Suciu
June 23, 2021
....China has gone all-in on aircraft carriers. It currently has two operational carriers – the Soviet-built and domestically refurbished Liaoning and the first indigenously-built Shandong. A third carrier is also under construction, but the PLAN has remained ambitious and is set to build a fourth carrier. And according to a new report, it will be China’s first nuclear-powered carrier, and that could put China in a very exclusive club on the world stage.
Currently, only the United States and France operate true nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and this includes the United States Navy’s ten Nimitz-class carriers and one Gerald R. Ford-class carrier as well as the French Navy’s flagship Charles de Gaulle. The warships are capable of operating for more than twenty years without refueling and have an expected service life that exceeds half a century.
UNQUOTE
Blurred mfer, check yr f*cked deterrent dogma before u fart!
DeleteOoop… don't forget to say who initiates that f*cked deterrent dogma.
U r truly full of yr uncle Sam's Bullyshits.
"Biden, who was reported to have called President Xi Jinping recently, to express his worry that China or the US may stumble into a war, may founder into one. If The Guardian is right, China has told the US, the UK and Australia to abandon their "cold war" mentality or risk hurting their own interests."
ReplyDeleteReports were flying around that it was Biden who picked up the phone to call Xi, AFTER the fruitless effort of Janet Yellen, the Secretary of Treasury who had recently slipped quietly into China on a 'secret mission', but many read this as a Yellen going to China with a begging bowl for another attempt to get China to buy their worthless bonds. China ain't gonna be suckered this time around.
The situation of the US-Sino relation has reached to a level that it was said that Xi is refusing to have a face-to-face with Biden. Very likely, Trump will be the last president to have met up with Xi, on a one-to-one.
Why is Xi not interested for such face-to-face meeting ?
1. The US is so divided internally that any sitting President have zero authority to make important decisions that are binding and committed. Xi knows that that the next US President could just as easily overturn decisions made by the previous POTUS.
2. The US is seen as a rapidly declining superpower with declining influence. The only countries which listen to the US anymore are the UK, Australia, Japan and Canada. Other countries just simply nod politely or openly ignore it.
3. The US government policy is increasingly 'hijacked' by the country's corporations which wield huge influence, they have the politicians, on both sides, in their pockets with their humongous election campaign funds. US companies will be more influenced by their board decisions than by the government policies. What is the outcome of all this ? China can now choose and pick which US companies it wants to deal with, instead of having to deal with the US government, which is becoming increasingly irrelevant. For example, read the latest joint-memo put up by 30 Top US companies to the US government...putting their case that the trade tariffs be discontinued, and explaining at length that the so-called tech war had cost the bottom-line of the US companies.
Under these conditions, why bother meeting with ANY US president ?