Beijing: Beijing has strongly criticized Canberra's decision to buy five nuclear-powered submarines from the US, accusing Washington and London of failing to live up to their obligations as nuclear powers and NPT signatories. Canberra's decision has sparked international outrage.
According to China's mission to the United Nations, the nuclear submarine cooperation plan is "a blatant act that poses serious nuclear proliferation risks, undermines the international non-proliferation regime, promotes an arms race, and undermines peace and stability in the region". harms," the mission said in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning.
US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement on Monday at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego.
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The SSN-AUKUS class submarines will be built in the UK and Australia in the late 2030s or early 2040s with US technology and support.
At least three Virginia-class submarines will be the first to be bought by Australia from the US.
Beijing has criticized the grouping on several occasions since the AUKUS alliance was founded in 2021 for pushing the limits of nuclear proliferation.
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Allied nations insist that a loophole exempts naval reactors from NPT safeguards, despite the fact that US-built submarines are fueled with weapons-grade highly enriched uranium.
China's diplomatic mission said on Tuesday that "the irony of AUKUS is that the two nuclear-weapon states that claim to uphold the highest nuclear non-proliferation standard sell tons of weapons-grade enriched uranium to non-nuclear-weapon states." are being transferred to, clearly violating the aims and objectives of the NPT."
China's diplomatic mission called the planned transfer of nuclear technology and materials a "textbook case of double standards" and urged the three to "respect their honour".
