Australia has boosted its defense spending over the past few years at a time when China is ramping up its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
The newspaper reported that discussions are about providing Australia with an initial fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, which can spend more time underwater, by about 2035.
Okos Alliance
Australia concluded a joint defense deal with the United Kingdom and the United States, in mid-September last year, under a new partnership called “Ocos”, and announced its withdrawal from a 56 billion euro submarine deal with the French company Naval Group.
The agreement with France stipulated the production of 12 “Barracuda” attack submarines, and then French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described Australia’s decision to violate the agreement as a “stab in the back.”
But earlier this month, officials said Australia and France were strengthening their defense cooperation and deepening diplomatic ties, in a bid to move past the deep row over the submarine contract that angered Paris a year ago.
Russian position
For its part, the Russian Ministry of Defense considered that the focus of the “Okos” alliance on the development of the nuclear submarine fleet in Australia is a dangerous trend and creates the conditions for undermining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Russia expressed its support for the Chinese initiative to include the issue of the transfer of nuclear materials within the framework of the “Ocos” alliance on the agenda of the meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as it sees a “problem” in the transfer of marine nuclear reactors to a non-nuclear-weapon country.
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