The trilateral defense agreement between the United States, the UK and Australia – the AUKUS- could lead to a collapse of the nuclear non-proliferation regime, Fu Cong, Director-General of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Arms Control Department, has warned on Tuesday, calling on the so-called P5 nations to talk more directly about global security.
In light of the P5’s – Russia, China, Great Britain, the United States and France- January 3 joint statement on the need to temper the risks of nuclear war and the inadmissibility of an arms race, Beijing is calling them to expand discussions on global security to include emerging threats.
Cong noted in his statement that AUKUS, which envisages development of nuclear submarines, is an extremely serious matter, stressing that if implemented, it would mean that the non-nuclear Australia will be given weapon-grade uranium by the nuclear US and Britain.
He stressed that the current safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides no means to establish or verify that Australia won’t be using those materials to create nuclear weapons.
Accusing the UK and the US of double standards. Cong pointed that the three AUKUS signatories have maliciously exploited the loophole in the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, and if followed by other countries do it, it would destroy the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
Previously in December, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has agreed that AUKUS increases tensions in the region by undermining the nuclear balance.
AUKUS, which made Canberra ditch a bilateral $66 billion submarine deal with Paris, was unveiled in mid-September, enraging France which condemned the deal as a betrayal of trust between the states.
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