Australia: Greens senator petitions for withdrawal from AUKUS
Steele-John launched a petition in the Australian parliament pressuring Canberra to withdraw from the deal.
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Jordon Steele-John.
The US and UK, under the aggressive anti-China, anti-Russia AUKUS pact, will supply high-end technology to Australia so that it can design and manufacture advanced nuclear submarines of its own.
Criticisms have been surfacing, condemning Australia for merging its military activities with the United States, particularly its nuclear activities, despite being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Read next: UK to hand over fleet of nuclear submarines to Australia: Reports
On Thursday, Australian senator Jordon Steele-John held a petition in the parliament pressuring the government to withdraw from the alliance and put a stop to the "integration" between the Australian and the US militaries.
“With the support of over 26,000 of you we have taken a great step in showing the parliament that we will not help the United States destabilize our region and nuclearize our submarine fleet in the process,” said Steele-John, a Greens’ senator representing Western Australia.
Steele-John stressed that Australia is at a "vital decision-making point" regarding how Australia will be interacting with its neighbors at large.
The senator, furthermore, touched upon global warming and the crisis, and "expanding wealth inequality," stressing that these matters require international cooperation with major countries.
“The AUKUS pact undermines all this because we can’t negotiate with one hand and point a gun with the other,” he remarked, arguing that the petition will not stop the development of lethal nuclear submarines from going through.
“I wish I could tell you that the tabling of this petition would be the end of it and the government will see the support for a more peaceful and independent foreign policy and course correct. The reality is sadly they probably won’t,” he remarked.
A Chinese position paper was recently released at a quarterly meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) in Vienna: "The AUKUS partnership involves the illegal transfer of nuclear weapon materials, making it essentially an act of nuclear proliferation," the Chinese position paper said.
Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief, said this week that policing the deal is a "tricky issue" since Australia was a signatory to the NPT.
