CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said that there was a “very warm embrace” of the AUKUS trilateral security partnership announcement, by the Quad partners.
The Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) pact was announced earlier this month. Under this new pact, the US will develop nuclear submarines for Australia.
Speaking at the Indian Media Online Briefing, Morrison said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan’s Yoshihide Suga Yoshi totally understood and supported what Australia was seeking to achieve from the pact. This statement comes in the backdrop of the recently concluded Quad leaders’ summit.
The leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the US in their first in-person Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) Summit discussed cooperation on several issues including infrastructure development, COVID-19 vaccine and the Indo-Pacific region.
“Narendra and Yoshi totally understood and supported what we were seeking to achieve there. And they totally were positive about how it complemented the Quad. It wasn’t in place, because the AUKUS partnership is a security and defense partnership,” Morrison said. “We have direct bilateral partnerships with the United States, the United Kingdom and the United States. We are formal allies,” the Australian PM added.
After the AUKUS was announced, France had reacted sharply to the cancellation of a multiple billion-dollar agreement with Australia. Another question that some experts had raised after the new security pact was announced was the possible impact of Aukus on Quad grouping.
“We see ASEAN as central to our Indo-Pacific vision within the Quad. And so, the Quad complements these many other partnerships, just as AUKUS indeed complements, rather than takes away, from what we’re doing in those other partnerships, particularly the Quad,” he said.
Aside from AUKUS, Morrison also spoke on the issue of India’s role in producing vaccines, Quad grouping and the importance of the Indo-Pacific region. (ANI)
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