AUKUS: another balance of power tango: Punsara Amarasinghe reflects on the recent United States-United Kingdom-Australia agreement.

• Jurisdiction: New Zealand
• Date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Amarasinghe, Punsara
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Amarasinghe, Punsara

The AUKUS security partnership signed by the United States, United Kingdom and Australia on 15 September made not a single explicit hint about China's hostility in the Pacific. But the defence deal is a clear indication of the West's perception of China as a potential adversary. The paranoia that exists in Washington towards Beijing has not arisen out of the blue, since relations between the two states have remain in a deteriorated state since the end of the Trump administration.

The cardinal feature of this pact between three English-speaking countries is that it has thrust Australia into the rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Despite its ideological affinity and long-term strategic alliance with the United States, Australia's economic ties to China have been indispensable. Beijing's reaction to Canberra's call last year for an independent inquiry into COVID-19's origins was hostile. China's subsequent decision to impose an 80 per cent import tax on Australia's barley left bilateral relations between the two states at their nadir. (1) Bringing Australia into a defence partnership with the United States and United Kingdom is akin to demonstrating Australia's confidence in the United States. The Australian government seems to be assuming that Washington is engaged in the region for the long haul. The crux of the defence partnership is the United States' agreement to share its nuclear submarine technology with Australia--the first time that the United States has done so with another country since its 1958 agreement to provide such technology to the United Kingdom.

From a theoretical international relations perspective, Australia's reliance on the United States and the formation of AUKUS is a classic illustration of Stephan M. Walt's balance of threat politics. (2) Just as the...