AUKUS Submarine Deal

On 17 March, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press conference said the US, the UK and Australia are putting up an Anglo-Saxon clique and creating the socalled AUKUS trilateral security partnership to advance nuclear submarine cooperation and other cutting-edge military technology cooperation and stated, "this is typical Cold War mentality and a move that opens a Pandora's box, which will seriously impact regional and global peace and security,”

What does it mean?

The pact is extremely costly but is certainly escalatory with the risk of overstretching capabilities and diverting resources. However, the nuclear submarine deal and the tomahawks deal are significant indicators of an Indo Pacific tilt. First, the emergence of bloc politics in the Indo Pacific. AUKUS is among the few other initiatives of the US in the Indo Pacific region with an underlying focus on deterring China’s growth. The three countries are also active members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group. Together with the Quad, the changes in Japan’s security strategy and the AUKUS deal, there seem to be two strong blocs emerging in the Indo Pacific. Second, time for new IAEA standards. A loophole in the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty that allows nuclear fuel used for non-explosive military uses like naval propulsion to be exempted from IAEA inspections, has enabled the AUKUS pact. IAEA has announced that it would check fuel usage in sealed power units to ensure it does not conflict with its non-proliferation obligations. With seven countries already possessing these submarine capabilities, a case-by-case verification would not be an effective method in the long-run. and Russia is not one of them. However, this would affect Putin from being unable to travel internationally.

France: Senate passes the pension reform bill amidst protests

On 11 March, before the senate meeting to vote on the pension reform bill, a set of protests was staged. Those who opposed the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 gathered across France, majorly in Paris.

India: Pakistan engages “hostile and fabricated propaganda" says MEA report

On 13 March, MEA Annual Report 2022 stated that Pakistan engages in “hostile and fabricated propaganda" to vilify India to divert attention from its domestic and economic crises. The report also stated that there is no let-up in Pakistan sponsored terrorism. However, the report mentioned that India desires normal relations with Pakistan and all the issues should be peacefully resolved bilaterally. The report also mentioned China and India’s engagement are complex and Chinese transgression at LAC has seriously disturbed the peace and tranquillity of border areas.

Russia: ICC issues an arrest warrant against Putin

According to France’s Interior Ministry close to 368,000 had took part while the CGT labour union reported one million. The nature of protests was observed to be massive due to France’s President Emmanuel Macron rejection to meet the union leaders.

On 11 March, using a quicker voting process to vote on entire bill than going by article and amendments, the upper chamber of the parliament voted in favour approving the pension reform. Upon the clearance, the final draft will be submitted for final vote of upper house and national assembly. Macron’s lacking majority, the challenge would be relied on Les Republicans to support in the vote.

About the Authors

What happened?

On 13 March, 18 months after the pact of AUKUS was signed in September 2021, the plan to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines was revealed by the US, UK, and Australia. President Biden hosted the Prime Ministers of UK and Australia at San Diego naval base on the same day. Following this, a defence official revealed to the European media that Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine program with the US and UK might cost up to AUD 368 billion (USD 245 billion) over the next three decades, making it the largest single-defence project in Australian history.

This investment is being seen as a significant move to confront China’s naval buildup in the IndoPacific, by supplying Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines. On 18 March, as part of the same pact, the Pentagon approved the sale of up to 220 of the Tomahawk missiles at a cost of $1.3 billion in a deal that will also include technical support.

In response to this, the Russian Foreign Minister stated that the AUKUS nuclear submarine cooperation is the advancement

On 18 March, The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleging he is responsible for war crimes. The report has focused on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, saying it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, and accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported. Legally, the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects, and can only exercise jurisdiction within its member countries -

Rashmi Ramesh, Harini Madhusudan, Ankit Singh and Akriti Sharma are PhD scholars in the School of Conflict and Security Studies at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Avishka Ashok, Anu Maria Joseph, Apoorva Sudhakar, Padmashree Anandhan and Femy Francis are Research Associates at NIAS. The report has been modified due to space considerations.