In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison took advantage of an intervention at the Lowy Institute, a think tank specializing in geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific region, to announce the construction of a new submarine base on the east coast of the island-continent, intended to accommodate the future nuclear submarines that Canberra intends to acquire in the framework of the Aukus alliance, within which it is associated with London and Washington.
With our correspondent in Sydney, Gregory Plesse
Being able to deploy quickly in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific Ocean is the objective sought through the construction of a second submarine base on the east coast, announced Monday by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison .
“ The creation of a new submarine base on the east coast will increase our strategic deterrence capabilities “, he declared during an intervention at the Lowy Institute.
This new base, whose exact location will be determined by the end of 2023, will be added to the existing one on the west coast, located near Perth.
Yet the first nuclear submarines, preferred last September to conventional submersibles that were to provide France to Australiawill not be launched until at least 2040.
New axis of evil
This is why many in the opposition see in this announcement a simple media stunt, only a few weeks before the next federal election.
Scott Morrison, for his part, drew a parallel between the behavior of Russia in Ukraine and that of China in the Indo-Pacific, grouping the two superpowers into a whole reminiscent of the axis of evil defined by George W. Bush twenty years ago. earlier.
“ A new arc of autocracy is lining up to challenge and reshape the world order in their own image… “, thus denounced Scott Morrison.
He further considered that China was the country best placed to stop the war in Ukraine but regretted that, so far, Beijing has chosen to support Moscow rather than oppose it. “The current crisis in Europe puts China in a time of choice “, he added.
Scott Morrison called on China to put pressure on its Russian ally and to prove that it is committed to world peace and the principle of sovereignty.