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Indonesia calls on Australia to honor nonproliferation duties after AUKUS details emerge
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A Royal Australian Navy Collins-class submarine, HMAS Waller, leaves Sydney Harbour, Australia, on May 4, 2022. The country’s nuclear-powered submarine building program, backed by the United States, could generate 20,000 jobs, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. (Reuters/DG/CC)
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ndonesia is calling on Australia to fulfill its nuclear nonproliferation duties under international law, following an update on a trilateral defense pact that equips its neighbor with up to five nuclear-powered submarines by the 2050s.
The Foreign Ministry took to Twitter on Tuesday to state Indonesia had been closely following the recent developments on the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) security arrangement, particularly regarding the “pathway to achieve [...] critical capability”.
The ministry made no direct mention of the plan for Australia to purchase nuclear submarines from the US and the UK, but the statement came hours after a joint statement by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
It said maintaining regional peace and stability was the responsibility of all countries, and that it was “critical” for all countries to be part of that effort.
“Indonesia expects Australia to remain consistent in fulfilling its obligations under the NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] and IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] safeguards, as well as to develop with the IAEA a verification mechanism that is effective, transparent and nondiscriminatory,” the ministry tweeted.
On Monday, the three Western allies unveiled more details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines starting in the early 2030s, with the US intending to sell to Australia three US Virginia-class submarines and up to two more if needed.
Biden stressed the submarines would be nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed.
