Australia shrugs off Chinese anger on submarine deal

Australia shrugs off Chinese anger on submarine deal

Australia has shrugged off chinese anger  over its decision to acquire u.s nuclear-powered submarines australian prime minister scott morrison has vowed to defend the rule of law in airspace and waters where beijing has staked multiple hotly contested claims washington signed a deal to extend u.s nuclear submarine technology to australia as well as cyber defense applied artificial intelligence and undersea capabilities.

China's government described the alliance as an extremely irresponsible threat to regional stability questioning australia's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation beijing warned the western ally is that they risked shooting themselves in the foot however australian prime minister scott morrison has rejected the chinese criticism saying that china has its own very substantive program of nuclear submarine building.

We're just doing what we need to do to keep australians safe and protect our national interests i mean china do the same thing they have massive investments in their military capabilities including in this area and australia doesn't raise issues around that all countries will take decisions in their national interests we believe this will add to the peace and stability and security of the region and that is i think a view that is widely shared about the impact of this arrangement and we encourage all countries in the region to engage in that way morrison added that australia is very aware of china's nuclear submarine capabilities and growing military investment adding that his government was reacting to changing dynamics in the asia pacific region where territory is increasingly contested and competition is rising morrison clarified the reason behind cancelling the multi-billion dollar submarine deal with france he says australia's current security needs compel them to have nuclear-powered submarines instead of the conventional submarines which france was set to provide they're important part of france particularly here in the pacific where we have so many shared interests and so we'll work through that um and that's necessary we don't have any issue with what you know obviously france and particularly naval group with the attack class submarine was seeking to do it was a good submarine it was a conventional submarine and that no longer met our needs so we had to do what was in our national interests and i'm sure that president macron would always act in france's natural international interests and and so too must australia hinting at china's aggressive posturing.

In the south china sea morrison says australia wants to ensure that international waters are always international waters and international skies are international skies and that the rule of law applies equally in all of these places australian defense minister peter dutton was even more dismissive of the reaction by some chinese officials and government-backed media describing it as counterproductive and immature and frankly embarrassing china claims almost all of the resource-rich south china sea through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually beijing has rejected competing claims from brunei malaysia the philippines taiwan and vietnam china has also been accused of deploying a range of military hardware including anti-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles in the region china has also imposed tough economic sanctions on australian products across a range of sectors now those measures are widely seen in australia as punishment for pushing back against beijing's operations publicly calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.