Australia to build new defense submarine base in the Indo-Pacific

The Australian government announced on Monday (03.07.2022) the construction of a new submarine base on the east coast of the country to deal with threats in the Indo-Pacific region, after the controversial pact that allows it to build technology nuclear submarines American.

“Threats from state and non-state actors are proliferating in our region. Militarization is rapidly expanding and evolving,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a Lowy Institute event.

The Australian president explicitly cited the expansion of China, an important trading partner of Australia but with whom he maintains a strong diplomatic tension, by claiming practically all the islands and atolls of the South China Sea, a key maritime trade route and rich in natural resources.

“There is no question that China is more assertive and uses its power in ways that cause concern to nations in the region and beyond,” Morrison added, referring to Beijing’s conflicting territorial claims with those of Vietnam, the Philippines. , Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Australia, which in September signed a defense agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom that gives it access to the construction of nuclear submarines using US technology, will invest some 10 billion Australian dollars (7.392 million US dollars) in its new base.

Likewise, Morrison warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has not been condemned by China, “is a reminder that, although Australia focuses on the Indo-Pacific, events in other parts of the planet will have an impact on that region.” strategic region.

The new base, in principle, would serve to house the aforementioned new nuclear submarines whose pact, called AUKUS by the acronym of the countries that compose it, created a problem with France by breaking a contract sealed in 2016 for the acquisition of submarines from the gala company Naval Group.

Australia, a country that is also part of the quadrilateral security pact called QUAD with the United States, Japan and India to defend the rule of law, currently has a base for its six Collins submarines in the southwestern city of Perth.

Canberra has not yet announced where the new base will be located, the first major construction since the Darwin barracks built in the 1990s, although Morrison said they are studying three sites between the cities of Brisbane, Port Kembla and Newcastle, these two last near Sydney.