AUKUS: Why Are France and China so Angry About This Pact? - TLDR News

[Music] this video is brought to you by the tldr socials follow us on instagram and twitter for coverage of stories just like this earlier and as they happen as well as explainers that never make it to youtube the link is in the description wednesday night saw a relatively unprecedented event at 10 pm uk time u.s president joe biden uk prime minister boris johnson and australian pm scott morrison held a joint albeit virtual press conference to announce a trilateral security pact one with quite significant ramifications not just for the three countries involved so in this video we'll take a look at just what was announced and what it means for those involved and those looking on before delving into the actual content of the pact the elephant in the room needs to be addressed biden if you've so much as glanced at social media in recent days after the announcement you'll have seen clip after clip of biden appearing to forget the australian pm's name thank you over to you mr president thank you boris and i want to thank that fellow down under thank you very much pal appreciate it mr prime minister i am honored today to be joined by two of america's closest allies now to be fair to him he could have just been saying in a friendly mate talking to a mate sort of way but it clearly didn't go unnoticed with abc news reporter matthew bevin summing up the national mood this is devastating for our national psyche our cultural cringe just tripled anyways back to the actual substance the press conference announced the start of a historic security pact between the three nations under the pact known as orcas australia uk and us the three nations will share technology and expertise in order to ultimately allow australia to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines the u.s had previously kept its nuclear submarine technology extremely close to home prior to this pact only the uk had received american nuclear submarine technology hence their inclusion in this pact all three leaders were at pains to stress that the submarines will be merely nuclear powered but they will not be equipped with nuclear arms but let me be clear australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability and the first task of this partnership will be to help australia acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines emphasizing of course that the submarines in question will be powered by nuclear reactors not armed with nuclear weapon i want to be exceedingly clear about this we're not talking about nuclear-armed submarines these are conventionally armed submarines that are powered by nuclear reactors this technology is proven it's safe in line with australia's obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty the npt they will solely be equipped with conventional arms australia will become the first country without nuclear weapons to obtain nuclear-powered submarines most widely australia will become the seventh nation in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines after the p-5 the five permanent members of the u.n security council as well as india these nuclear-powered submarines have a number of advantages over conventionally powered submarines most notably when it comes to weapon storage speed and endurance as the australian government's own press release highlights nuclear-powered submarines can stay completely submerged for many months limiting the opportunities for detection by adversaries france have been set to build 12 conventional submarines for australia in a deal worth more than 50 billion euro a deal that has fallen through in light of the pact it's safe to say that france isn't happy with the move the french foreign minister jean-yves vladimir told france info radio that it's really a stab in the back we had established a relationship of trust with australia and this trust has been betrayed ludwig continued to highlight that he was personally angry and very bitter about this breakup given the apparent lack of notice given to france ladrina said that he had spoken to his australian counterpart just a matter of days ago and had received no serious indication of the move french president emmanuel macron had according to reuters laundered decades of future cooperation when hosting australian prime minister scott morrison in june la dorina further indicated that france would not take the break up lying down noting that this is not over we have contracts the australians will need to tell us how they're getting out of it we have an intergovernmental deal with precise commitments with clauses how they're going to get out of it while the exact contract is not in the public domain the australian national audit office has already stated that the agreement contains rights remedies and incentives including protections control gates and establishes contractual off-ramps in plain speak they're within their rights to call it quits that being said in 2019 abc managed to get their hands on parts of the agreement the parts that specified the required break payments if australia decided to withdraw from the agreement according to abc if australia decided not to proceed further after the naval group the french company tasked with the project had completed the basic design it would be liable for a 140 million dollar break payment if a detailed submarine design had been completed and australia left at that point that break payment rises to 404 million we obviously do not know at what stage the agreement was at in any case in a joint communication by la durrian and florence palla minister of the armed forces they stressed the need for european strategic autonomy i.e its own military capabilities and alliance the regrettable decision just announced on the future submarine program only heightens the need to raise loud and clear the issue of european strategic autonomy there is no other credible path for defending our interests and values around the world including in the indo-pacific region something backed up by the eu's foreign policy chief joseph burrell adding that this forces us once again to reflect on the need to make the issue of european strategic autonomy a priority this shows us we must survive on our own whether deliberate or not the announcement managed to be timed for the precise day before the eu was set to publish its own indo-pacific policy marine le pen was quick to seize on the apparent failure of french diplomacy calling the move a political disaster a public humiliation for france and a very serious attack on its image as an industrial power the pact isn't limited solely to the submarines however so-called initial efforts will focus on cyber capabilities artificial intelligence quantum technologies and additional undersea capabilities the pact is not the first between the three nations all three nations are part of the five eyes intelligence sharing alliance which also includes new zealand and canada an alliance that goes back to the 1940s china widely seen as the target of the pact but not officially named as such was also incredibly quick to criticize orcas arguing that the patch was extremely irresponsible narrow-minded severely damages regional peace intensified the arms race and is reminiscent of the obsolete cold war mentality not the most glowing of reports speaking in the house of commons flanked by his new cabinet british pm boris johnson stressed that orcas wasn't designed to be adversarial against any one particular nation i think he began by asking whether it was in any sense adversarial to to china and how we would manage the relationship with china and i think it's important for the house to understand that this is orcus is not intended to be adversarial towards any uh other power uh mr speaker but it merely reflects the close relationship that we have with the united states and with australia the shared values uh that we have and the sheer level of trust between us but what do you think will orcas be the start of a bolstered response to china will it merely antagonize them and what does the apparent shining of france mean for where power lies in the world let us know your thoughts in the comments below and of course be sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon to be notified whenever we post a video special thanks to our patreon backers who make videos like this one possible and if you want to see your name at the end of the video you too can back us on patreon the link to that is in the description

Channel: TLDR News

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Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021