Related video: China condemns Aukus treaty as ‘irresponsible act’ that ‘intensifies arms race’
A senior Chinese military expert has said the newly-announced Aukus pact, which will see the UK and the US supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, puts the latter at risk of becoming a “potential target for nuclear strikes”.
Speaking to China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, the unnamed official said nations such as China and Russia would not treat Canberra as “an innocent non-nuclear power” but as “a US ally which could be armed with nuclear weapons [at] any time”, adding that Australian PM Scott Morrison was putting his nation in danger.
It comes after the news of Aukus sparked a diplomatic row between the UK and France, with Paris labelling it a “stab in the back”, because its inception means Canberra ripped up a deal worth around £30bn that was struck with Paris in 2016, for France to provide 12 diesel-electric submarines.
Defence secretary Ben Wallace insisted Britain did not “go fishing” for the pact while Boris Johnson told the Commons earlier that Aukus was “not intended to be adversarial to any other power”.
“Our military relationship with France is rock solid and we stand shoulder to shoulder with the French,” the PM added.
