2024-04-08 20:20:21
Canberra: AUKUS means Australia, United Kingdom and America. It is a trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific region. AUKUS was created primarily to deter China. At the time of AUKUS’s inception in 2021, the United States and the United Kingdom had ruled out including any fourth country in the partnership. Even New Zealand, which is close to America, did not get entry in it. However, now everything is about to change. According to the report of the Financial Times, now the three countries included in AUKUS are going to reach a mutual agreement to bring new members with them. For this, talks are going to start soon between these three members.
New members will join like pillar two
The newspaper report, citing people familiar with the matter, said AUKUS’s defense minister will announce discussions on Monday on “pillar two” of the security agreement, which will allow members to jointly explore areas such as quantum computing, undersea cooperation, Commits to develop hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technologies. US President Joe Biden has sought to build partnerships with US allies in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, to counter China’s historic military buildup and its growing regional assertiveness.
New members will not get nuclear submarine
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel wrote that Japan is about to become the first pillar-two partner. The opinion said AUKUS countries are not considering expanding the first pillar, which is designed to deliver nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia. This means that nuclear submarine technology will not be shared with the new member countries.
Biden can talk to Japanese PM on Wednesday
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will likely discuss expanding AUKUS to include Japan in Washington on Wednesday, according to a source. The report also said Australia is wary of starting new projects until there is more progress on the supply of nuclear submarines. Earlier, America had said that other countries of Europe and Asia can be included in the second pillar of AUKUS.
Will India become a member of AUKUS?
According to a Mint report published in March 2023, India and the AUKUS bloc were holding informal exploratory talks on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and cyber technologies. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said the AUKUS countries are keen to collaborate with India on emerging technologies given New Delhi’s strong scientific research and development capability. While Indian officials had initially expressed interest in joining, no formal talks had yet taken place.