Category Archives: Aukus

UK invites south-east Asian nations to G7 summit amid Aukus tensions

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The alliance between Britain, the US and Australia has divided the region and angered China

The UK has invited south-east Asian nations to attend a G7 foreign ministers meeting in Liverpool next month, in a move that risks highlighting concerns that the new alliance between Britain, the US and Australia will fuel a regional nuclear arms race.

States from the Association of South-East Asian Nations are divided on the new Aukus partnership but some, notably Indonesia and Malaysia, have sharply criticised it, and many in the 10-member bloc are reluctant to take sides in the unfolding superpower rivalry between the US and China.

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‘Throwing toothpicks at the mountain’: Paul Keating says Aukus submarines plan will have no impact on China

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Former Australian prime minister also says Britain ‘like an old theme park sliding into the Atlantic’ compared to modern China

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has denounced the US- and UK-backed plan for nuclear-powered submarines as “like throwing a handful of toothpicks at the mountain”, declaring Australia should avoid being drawn into a war with China.

The former Labor leader on Wednesday accused the major Australian political parties of losing their way on foreign policy, while dismissing the credibility of the UK’s “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region.

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The Macron spat over Aukus submarines has taught world leaders a lot about Scott Morrison | Katharine Murphy

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The Australian PM is a relatively new player on the global stage, but the leak of the French president’s text message spoke volumes

As Scott Morrison flew towards Australia’s military base for operations in the Middle East on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre Thébault was using an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra to continue France’s rolling excoriation of Australia’s conduct while dumping a multibillion-dollar submarine contract.

By the time Morrison touched down in the desert, the French ambassador had landed a potent extrapolation. If Scott Morrison’s operation was prepared to leak private text messages from world leaders to settle diplomatic scores, who could trust Australia?

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French ambassador says leak of Macron text ‘new low’ as submarines rift deepens

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Jean-Pierre Thébault says Morrison government’s ‘deceit was intentional’ and questions whether any country could trust ‘the value of Australia’s signature’

The French ambassador has denounced the Australian government’s release of a private text message from Emmanuel Macron as “an unprecedented new low”, arguing other world leaders would now worry their words might be “weaponised” against them.

Jean-Pierre Thébault said the leaking of the text message from the French president was a setback “in terms of truth and trust”, and it would be “sad” if this was the Australian government’s answer to France’s request for concrete actions to heal the relationship.

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French officials vent fury over Australian leak of Macron text message

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Confidence shattered by ‘crude’ leak of president’s message to prime minister Scott Morrison, says adviser

Elysée officials have expressed fury at the decision of Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to leak a private text message from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the diplomatic rift between the two countries deepened.

“Confidence has been completely shattered,” a close adviser to Macron told French media on Tuesday. “Disclosing a text message exchange between heads of state or government is a pretty crude and unconventional tactic.”

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‘Not going to cop sledging’: Scott Morrison hits back at Macron in row over submarine deal

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Prime minister gives details of contract talks after French president accuses him of lying about plans to cancel $90bn deal

Scott Morrison has hit back against an extraordinary accusation from the French president that Australia’s prime minister lied to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, declaring he will not “cop sledging” about Australia’s integrity.

Speaking to reporters in Glasgow where he is attending the UN climate conference Cop26, Morrison said Emmanuel Macron was well aware that Australia was contemplating pulling out of the troubled Naval Group diesel submarine contract.

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‘I don’t think, I know’: Macron accuses Scott Morrison of lying about submarine contract – video

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Emmanuel Macron has accused the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, of lying to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, in a significant escalation of tensions between Paris and Canberra. 'I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line and consistent with this value,' the French president said. When asked whether he thought Morrison had lied to him by not revealing Australia’s dialogue with the UK and US over the acquisition of nuclear submarines, Macron was direct in his response. 'I don’t think, I know'.  

Video courtesy of Pablo Viñales

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Macron accuses Australian PM of lying over submarine deal

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French president criticises Scott Morrison and expresses scepticism that Aukus pact will deliver on schedule

Emmanuel Macron has accused the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, of lying to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, in a significant escalation of tensions between Paris and Canberra.

The French president levelled the accusation in impromptu comments to Australian journalists on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome. He said he had a lot of “respect and friendship” for Australia and Australians, but that respect between nations needed to be reciprocated.

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Biden tells France the US was ‘clumsy’ in its handling of Aukus deal – video

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Joe Biden tried to repair his personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a 'clumsy' episode handled with a lack of grace. The US president and his French counterpart met at France’s Vatican embassy in Rome on Friday, before the G20 leaders’ summit this weekend, for their first in-person discussion since Macron was left feeling betrayed and humiliated by September’s security deal

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Biden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine deal

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American president moves to repair relationship after France was blindsided by security pact

Joe Biden has moved to repair his damaged personal and political relationship with Emmanuel Macron by acknowledging that the announcement of a security and technology pact that blindsided France was a “clumsy” episode handled with a lack of grace.

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Macron’s anger over nuclear submarine deal linked to French election, Peter Dutton says

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Australian defence minister’s claim comes as French president and PM Scott Morrison speak for first time since rift over Aukus deal

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Peter Dutton says sustained expressions of outrage from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, may be connected to the European country’s looming national election rather than the cancellation of a $90bn submarine contract.

Australia’s defence minister told the Nine network a call on Thursday night between Macron and the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, had been “productive”. The conversation was the first time the two leaders have spoken since the unveiling of the Aukus pact sent diplomatic relationship between Canberra and Paris into freefall.

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Scrapping submarines deal broke trust, Macron tells Australian PM

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French president says Scott Morrison should propose tangible actions to heal rift, in first call since row

The French president has told the Australian prime minister that the scrapping of a multibillion-dollar submarine contract “broke the relationship of trust” and said Canberra should propose “tangible actions” to heal a diplomatic rift.

In their first phone call since Australia dumped the submarine plans, Emmanuel Macron also encouraged Scott Morrison to adopt a more ambitious climate policy, including a commitment “to cease production and consumption of coal at the national level and abroad”, according to a French government readout of the conversation.

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Australia politics live news: government faces net zero ‘plan’ fallout; Covid vaccine booster shots approved; overseas travel for fully vaccinated

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Question time tackles climate policy as PM faces mounting criticism over roadmap for reducing emissions by 2050; vaccine booster program to begin from 8 November; 16 Covid deaths in Victoria and NSW; international travel exemption scrapped for vaccinated Australians; national child abuse prevention strategy announced. Follow all the day’s news

The UN Environment Programme’s latest emissions gap report is out and it makes for sobering reading. The accompanying statement includes this:

Alok Sharma, incoming COP26 President, said the report underlined why countries need to show ambitious climate action at COP26:

“As this report makes clear, if countries deliver on their 2030 NDCs and net zero commitments which have been announced by the end of September, we will be heading towards average global temperature rises of just above 2C.

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Under the radar: the Australian intelligence chief in the shadows of the Aukus deal

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Andrew Shearer’s unreported meeting in April with Joe Biden’s top Indo-Pacific adviser may have been the clincher for the Aukus security agreement

It was late April when one of Australia’s top intelligence chiefs arrived in Washington for important talks with key officials in the relatively new Biden administration.

Andrew Shearer, a longtime foreign policy hawk and one of Scott Morrison’s most influential advisers on how Australia should position itself at a time of rising tensions with China, met with Joe Biden’s top Indo-Pacific adviser, Kurt Campbell, in the building next to the White House on 30 April.

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IAEA chief: Aukus could set precedent for pursuit of nuclear submarines

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Special taskforce convened by IAEA to look into Aukus deal as Iran hints at fresh pursuit of its 2018 naval nuclear propulsion program

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog has said other states could follow Australia’s example and seek to build nuclear-powered submarines, raising serious proliferation and legal concerns.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said during a visit to Washington that he had sent a special team to look into the safety and legal implications of the Aukus partnership announced last month, in which the US and UK will help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

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Tony Abbott raises fears China ‘could lash out disastrously’ as Taiwan tensions grow

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The former Australian prime minister uses a speech in Taipei to call on Beijing to ‘scale back the aggression’

The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has raised fears Beijing “could lash out disastrously very soon” amid growing tensions over the future of Taiwan – and argued the US and Australia could not stand idly by.

Delivering two high profile addresses to a regional forum in Taipei on Friday, Abbott dismissed claims that Australian officials were beating the “drums of war”, while calling on Beijing to “scale back the aggression”.

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Will all submarines, even nuclear ones, be obsolete and ‘visible’ by 2040?

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Technologies could render the ocean transparent by the time Australia’s new submarines are ready, some experts say

Australia’s proposed nuclear-powered submarines could be obsolete by the time they hit the water in the 2040s due to new technologies making underwater vessels “visible”, some experts argue.

One of the controversies over the federal government’s decision to ditch the $90bn deal to build conventional submarines in favour of nuclear boats is the timeline for getting them battle-ready.

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Australia told French submarine firm it didn’t have green light to proceed hours before deal cancelled

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Letter, sent to Naval Group on 15 September, is at the heart of diplomatic rift between France and Australia

Australia cautioned the French contractor – hours before the $90bn submarine deal was cancelled – that its achievement of a key contractual milestone did “not provide any authorisation to continue work”.

The letter, sent to Naval Group on 15 September, is at the heart of an extraordinary diplomatic rift between France and Australia, with the French foreign minister telling a parliamentary hearing this week that “someone lied”.

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‘Someone lied’: French foreign minister accuses Australia of submarine betrayal in latest broadside

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Jean-Yves Le Drian says Australia reassured France everything was fine right up to the day the Aukus pact was announced

France has accused Australia of lying shortly before Canberra cancelled a major submarine contract, with the French foreign minister declaring “someone lied”.

With no sign of any imminent easing of tensions between the two countries, Jean-Yves Le Drian told a parliamentary hearing that Australia had never expressed doubts about the €56bn (A$90bn) submarine contract or the strategic Indo-Pacific pact before breaking the contract.

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Jacinda Ardern needs to speak out on Aukus – her tacit approval allows a dangerous military build-up | Bryce Edwards

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New Zealand’s prime minister has essentially turned a blind eye to the pact – she knows taking the moral high ground leads to punishment

New Zealand defence hawks reacted to the announcement of the anglophone security pact Aukus this month by complaining this country had been sidelined. In order to stay close to traditional allies, the hawks suggest New Zealand needs to either increase defence spending to compensate, or overturn New Zealand’s long-held ban on nuclear-powered vessels.

On the opposing side, there have been plenty of doves celebrating that New Zealand isn’t involved in Aukus. For example, editorials from the three biggest newspapers all took this stance, which probably reflects the general view of most New Zealanders.

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