AUKUS (Australia, US & US alliance): China's Worst Nightmare and #ThatFellaDownUnder (2021)

Welcome back to the Snapshot Channel. I'm Sonya Briskeen. Like and subscribe our channel. Now, today's big massive news. This historic agreement was signed called the AUKUS, a new alliance between Australia, UK and the US. The name really sounds like some sort of fancy dish, but really it's a monumental moment in the global geopolitical history. It was announced as a forever partnership on the 16th of September between the three countries. And in response to most partnerships of this nature, there are quite a few unhappy countries, namely China and France, with some calling it China's worst nightmare. Why is that? Firstly, make sure you subscribe to our channel. But let's move on. So far, Australia has a few alliances. The ANZUS, which is an alliance between Australia, New Zealand and the US, celebrates its 70th birthday last month. We also have QUAD, which is sort of an informal alliance between like-minded countries, the United States, Japan, Australia and India, supposedly with a focus on countering an increasingly aggressive China. Then we also have the FIVE EYES, which is a predominantly an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and United States. Now we have AUKUS. How is this different from other alliances? Well, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called it the forever partnership between the eldest and most trusted of friends. The pact pivots Australia even more away from China and further strengthens the alliance between Australia and US. Despite China being Australia's biggest trading partner, some say this might not be a good idea in financial terms. But other analysts say in the face of China's increasing economic bullying and coercion towards Australia, such as raising tariffs and stopping imports of Australian products, Australia was left with no choice but to strengthen and formalise alliances with other countries of the free world. This pact will enable Australia gain access to top-secret nuclear-powered submarine technology to build a new submarine fleet in Adelaide. The alliance will allow the three governments to share information and technology, including defence-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains. AUKUS will also mean further collaboration on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and additional undersea capabilities. But don't worry, Scott Morrison reassures everyone that Australia is not getting involved in nuclear weapons. Phew, this is about nuclear powered submarines. Good news, Australia will not pursue nuclear weapons or a civil nuclear capability and the submarines will not be armed with nuclear weapons. An alliance like this has never been done before. The last one was between the US and the UK almost 70 years ago. Not everyone's happy, of course. China is curious. Of course, no one mentioned the C word when the alliance was announced. The spokespersons of each country tried their best to emphasise it was not directed at any country in particular. But it was quite obvious this alliance was formed to counter China's influence in the Indo-Pacific. Here's what Morrison said. Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region, the Indo-Pacific. This affects us all. I can hear China here. Yep, definitely can hear it. And here's UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson working hand in glove to preserve stability and security in the Indo-Pacific. Once again, this opposes China. And US President Joe Biden said this most modern capabilities we need to manoeuvre and defend against rapidly evolving threats. Threats? I think we can hear it again. When asked to comment, Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington, Liu Pengyu said countries should not build exclusionary blocks targeting or harming the interests of third parties. In particular, they should shake off their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice. This is something China has been saying to a country that does not meet its eye. Well, its communist eye. Usually it is the other country's fault or their intolerance of the Chinese ideological system. In other words, China's quasi-communist system. So anyone who pushes back will be seen as engaging in Cold War. Someone else who's also unhappy and disappointed about the pact is France. It will be a big 90 billion hit to a previous program with the French to build 12 attack class submarines in France, which has now terminated after all the disagreements, delays and blowouts. With this program, Australia has finally turned away from the deal with France, but not before the French foreign minister accused Australia of stabbing in the back and betraying their trust, reacting quite angrily actually to the formation of the new alliance. They were so angry that on the weekend, the French president Emmanuel Macron recalled their ambassadors to the US and Australia. That's massive. This was the first time the French has done this since the American revolution. Wow. They're angry. You're probably wondering what are nuclear powered submarines anyway? These are submarines powered by onboard nuclear reactors. The Australian government and defense force have insisted the submarines will be nuclear powered and never nuclear armed. Compared to diesel powered submarines, which was the kind that Australia was going to get with the previous French agreement, nuclear powered submarines are built for endurance. With abundant power, some builds can run almost indefinitely. The downside, however, is that they are larger and can't move into shallow waters, therefore making it more detectable. Now, notably missing from the alliance is Canada and New Zealand, the other two partners in the intelligence sharing alliance Five Eyes. Experts say that this illustrates the fact both New Zealand and Canada's stance on China is becoming increasingly different to Australia. In recent years, Canada and New Zealand have both condemned China on human rights breaches on specific issues in a case by case way, but have both avoided strong statements towards China's actions more broadly. New Zealand's longstanding nuclear free policy now means that Australian submarines developed under the deal are banned from New Zealand waters. Back in Australia, the opposition Labour Party agrees with the coalition and welcomes the news. Looking forward to the partnership. Now, not everyone agrees though, with the leader of the Greens calling the submarines floating to nobles. Strong statement, but he told the ABC that it was the worst decision in decades. He believes that Australia as a middle power should not be getting involved by aligning ourselves in a policy of escalation, which will increase tensions. As Andrew Tillett from the Financial Review summed it up quite neatly. Nevertheless, Australia's decision to embrace nuclear powered submarines represents a failure on Xi Jinping's part. The bellicose tone from wolf warrior diplomats and state-run media, the unashamed militarization of the South China Sea, the weaponization of trade, the hostage diplomacy behind the arrest of Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun have served only to stiffen Australian spines. And to finish up, here's something quite hilarious. During this historic pact announcement, the president of United States, Joe Biden forgets Scott Morrison's name. Oops, the senile factors is just getting out of hand really. Anyway, first he turns to the British prime minister. Thank you, Boris, he said. Then looking towards a TV screen on which Morrison was appearing via video link, Biden appeared to I want to thank that fellow down under. Thank you very much, pal. And I want to thank the fellow down under. Thank you very much, pal, Biden said. He added, appreciated, Mr. Prime Minister, no name. And what did Scott Morrison do? He gave Biden a thumbs up. That's all for today, folks. Make sure you leave your comments below. We want to hear your thoughts on this topic. Please remember, like and subscribe. And I look forward to future episodes on our Snapshot channel. Take care.