Financial Times: "Ocos" agreement raises confusing questions and stokes tension with China

The British Financial Times said that Australia's nuclear submarine deal with the United States and Britain will benefit the three countries, but - in return - it will lead to an increase in the escalating tension between them and China.

The newspaper pointed out - in its editorial - that the timing of the deal - which the three countries presented as a defense agreement, and called it "Aukus" - serves US President Joe Biden, as it comes after the disaster of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and confirms his commitment to making regional alliances to confront China, which he sees as the most prominent geopolitical threat to US interests.

She recalled that the security agreement comes at a time when the United States is preparing to host a four-way summit next week called the "Asian NATO", which includes India, Japan, America and Australia, with the aim of limiting China's influence in the region.

The Financial Times said that providing Australia - the main ally of the United States and geographically close to China - with advanced nuclear submarines and long-range missiles comes as part of America's response to the threat posed by the 14 nuclear submarines that Beijing deploys in strategic hot spots and major trade routes in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

problems

However, there are many questions that cast a shadow over the agreement, according to the newspaper, including doubts about the willingness of Britain and Australia to accept the commercial and strategic consequences of antagonizing China, which sees the new agreement as a clear threat to it.

She pointed to other problems with the agreement, including that new nuclear submarines may not be ready within the next decade, and President Biden's embarrassing mistake that does not serve the image of the new tripartite alliance when he was unable to remember the name of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a hypothetical press conference about the deal. The event, and referred to it by saying, "I thank that comrade."

The Financial Times said that the most embarrassing problem is the repercussions of the nuclear submarine deal on the relationship of the three countries with France, against which Australia abandoned the deal it had concluded with France to buy submarines since 2016, which upset Paris.

The newspaper concluded that provoking France's wrath will have negative repercussions on both the United States and Britain, especially with regard to confronting the Russian threat, and may lead to the revival of the investment treaty between the European Union and China that was frozen due to the Biden administration's discomfort with it.

And the French Foreign Ministry had said - earlier on Friday - that it had been decided - at the request of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron - to immediately summon the ambassadors of France to America and Australia for consultation, against the background of the "Okos" initiative between America, Britain and Australia, which Paris considered a "stab in the back". ".

The statement condemned the abandonment of the submarine deal concluded by Australia and France since 2016, and said that the announcement of a new partnership with the United States is unacceptable behavior and its consequences will affect France's concept of its alliances and partnerships, and the importance of the Indo-Pacific region for Europe.