By Shanza Riaz Gondal. United Kingdom, Australia, France, Japan, and India are the key allies of the US Indo-Pacific strategy. US’ Obama administration articulated the pivot to Asia policy in 2011 but the Indo-Pacific strategy was officially announced by the Trump administration in 2017. The main focus of this strategy is to contain China in the region and cooperate with allies to promote liberal values. US has signed various bilateral agreements and also formulated a quad literal security agreement QUAD to get gains strategy. At the start of September, the US historically evacuated from Afghanistan, and a gesture was given that this withdrawal has been made to fix the focus of the US on her national interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
On 15 September 2021, a virtual meeting was held among US president Joe Biden, UK prime minister Boris Johnson and his counterpart Scott Morrison. These leaders announced the trilateral military partnership, formally known as AUKUS, to expand the cooperation in intelligence sharing, Artificial Intelligence, and other cyber issues. Particularly the major contribution in this strategy is to help Australia build their own nuclear-power submarines with the assistance of the UK and US. The announcement did not particularly mentioned China but they indicated to counter China by saying that this partnership is made to “meet the threat” and to “maintain the security and stability” in the Indo-Pacific region.
All were beneficial and happy until this news reached France. France and the EU were not informed about this deal and what’s more, Australia scrapped the deal with France worth of 50 billion Australian dollars of building 12 conventional powered submarines. The French foreign minister Jean Yeves Le Drian remarked on AUKUS that “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do. I’m angry and bitter, this is not done between allies. It’s a stab in the back.” Furthermore, on the next morning, France recalled her ambassadors from Australia and the US to protest diplomatically. Australian call off from deal, with the back of US, is a major humiliation for France in the international political arena.
Moreover, this announcement was made right before the European Union was announced its Indo-Pacific Plan. The AUKUS announcement outshined the launching of the EU’s Indo-Pacific Plan. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borell, commented that “We regret not having being informed and not having to be part of these talks.” So, the US’ all-weather allies EU, particularly France, are feeling betrayed and planning to build the EU’s own military structure. However, the US’ key player of Indo-Pacific strategy, India, is still silent on this alliance. There is still no official reaction from the state.
The US announced this enormous deal to shift the focus of the world from Afghanistan’s evacuation debacle to the Indo-Pacific region. The US is pursuing its national interests as always and doing whatever is suiting to counter China. China is also showing resentment against AUKUS by calling it an “extremely irresponsible” act that can “undermine regional stability, aggravate the arms race, and hurt international non-proliferation efforts.” Some researchers are making comparisons with this alliance AUKUS with the US Cold War alliance UKUSA, but the US should not forget that she won the Cold War with the help of allies. Coherence between allies can be proved as the key elements of the US’ counter-China strategy. So instead of surprising allies, the US should plan to surprise adversaries.
The write is a student of MPhil IR at National Defense University Islamabad.