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In News
- Recently, leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States met at a US naval base as a part of AUKUS.
About
- AUKUS is a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific, between Australia, the UK and the US (AUKUS).
- Under the pact, the US and the UK will help Australia to acquire conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines.
- The pact also includes cooperation on advanced cyber, artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, electronic warfare, innovation and information sharing.
Significance:
- AUKUS aims for freedom and openness in the Indo-Pacific region, including the South China Sea.
- AUKUS partnership is signed to bolster Australia’s naval power in the Indo-Pacific region as a challenge to the regional hegemonic ambitions of China.
- The operationalisation of this security partnership will lead to closer military coordination among the participating nations in the region.
- China’s encirclement of India can be partially mitigated by AUKUS.
- India may derive secondary benefits from having top of the class military know-how in the region .
Challenges:
- Many of its regional partners such as Indonesia oppose Australian operating nuclear attack submarines.
- Virginia class submarines are worlds most potent in terms of capabilities many U.S. policymakers are sceptical about the sale.
- Integration of three different systems will prove difficult.
- The U.S.’s stringent export control and protocol regime could spoil the technology transfer agreement, particularly in areas related to undersea capabilities and electronic warfare.
Implications for India:
- India could obtain a better deal from the French who are aggrieved because of Australia cancelling its submarine order.
- The submarines present India a huge opportunity for coordination during joint military exercises.
- There is a possibility of crowding of nuclear attack submarines in the Eastern Indian Ocean which could erode India’s regional pre-eminence.
Source: IE
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