Finally, somebody in Labor has used their brain. Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia, is President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group, co-chairman of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, founding convener of the Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, and an honorary professor at Australian National University at Project Syndicate.
Some world-class hyperbole has been generated by Australia’s new AUKUS technology-sharing agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom. Our proposed acquisition, in particular, of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, voiding in the process a massive deal with France to build 12 conventionally propelled diesel submarines, has fuelled an uproar at home and abroad.For some in the anti-nuclear movement, the AUKUS agreement poses the biggest threat to nuclear non-proliferation since North Korea’s breakout. For Australia’s Greens, “floating Chernobyls” are about to blow up our port cities. For anti-China hawks, it’s champagne time: AUKUS represents a “vital bulwark against an angry and authoritarian communist China”.
For China’s Foreign Ministry, it “seriously damages regional peace and stability, intensifies the arms race, and undermines the Non-Proliferation Treaty”, and, for China’s media wolf warriors, it makes Australia “a potential nuclear war target”.
