By Kong Jun
The US, the UK and Australia recently announced to forge a trilateral “security partnership” under which the US and the UK will help Australia build at least eight nuclear submarines. This has raised widespread doubts and concerns in the international community. But the military cooperation between Washington and Canberra doesn’t stop there. It is reported that Canberra intends to allow the US to deploy strategic bombers on its soil in exchange for its help for Australia to develop long-range precision attack weapons. As the first step, Washington will sell the Tomahawk cruise missile to Canberra.
The Tomahawk cruise missile is an offensive weapon of strategic significance developed by the US. It was first used during the Gulf War when the US fired more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraq and caused a humanistic disaster. The Tomahawk also haunted Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Libya and Syria, where it was the chief culprit for overthrowing foreign regimes.
The international community still hasn’t reached a universally applicable law on the non-proliferation of missiles. Under such circumstances, countries should be restrained, prudent and responsible regarding the transfer of missiles and take actions to preserve international peace and stability, but the Tomahawk missile deal between the US and Australia is against all of that.
Located in South Pacific with a favorable geographical environment, Australia has never faced any major security threats. The recent introduction of Tomahawk missile on a large scale, which is far beyond its defense needs, is bound to court vigilance and objection from its neighbors.
The deal also reveals to the international community the hypocrisy of the so-called “non-proliferation rules” clamored by the US. America has created a small circle that specifically demands that missile systems of more than 300km shooting range and 500kg load shall be subjected to the maximal transfer limit. The US and Australia have imposed numerous restrictions on countries outside of the small circle, but feel no qualms about transferring advanced missiles inside it – nothing is more double standards than this.
The Tomahawk missile trade between the US and Australia that’s made known to the public may be just the tip of the iceberg. According to the 2020 Defence Strategic Update and the 2020 Force Structure Plan released last year, Australia plans to reinforce its military forces comprehensively and invest one billion Australian dollars to build a missile and national defense industry system. In recent years, the US and Australia have kept strengthening their military cooperation in such areas as missile defense, outer space and cyberspace, and have jointly developed hypersonic missiles, which will unavoidably open Pandora’s box of regional arms race.
Claiming itself as the “guardian of world peace,” the US has formed a gigantic weapons sales industry chain through constant armed interference in other countries and extracted tremendous profits from it. In the past five years, its total weapons export volume has steadily topped the world with a 37% share. The Asia Pacific imported the largest number of weapons, and American allies, such as Australia, are among the world’s top ten weapon importers. We can well imagine the recent arms deal between the US and Australia will spur Asian-Pacific countries to import more weapons, which is exactly what American military enterprises and arms manufacturers are waiting for.
The US keeps emphasizing that it doesn’t seek a “new Cold War,” but what it has done since the end of the Cold War seems to aim at starting a new one, and Washington is internationally recognized as the biggest destroyer of world stability. Peace and development are the common aspiration of Asian-Pacific countries and people. Yet, Washington and Canberra are blatantly trading in nuclear submarines and missiles, which goes against the trend of historical development. Their hideous act of pursuing their own interests regardless of international security will be condemned by the international community. Canberra should think twice and understand that what it’s taking over is nothing but a hot potato. It would also serve it well to read a history book and find out how many countries have been first befriended and then abandoned by the US.
(The author is an observer of international issues.)
Editor's note: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
