AUKUS: THE SECURITY PARTNERSHIP

AUKUS: THE SECURITY PARTNERSHIP

Context:

US President Joe Biden administration has declared a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-pacific. Security partnership was done between United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

Key Highlights:

• This security grouping called AUKUS will focus on growing strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The trilateral grouping was security-focused and is different but complementary to arrangements like the Quad.

About the Partnership:

• The central feature of this partnership comprises a trilateral 18-month effort to help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines which are quieter, more capable as compared to their conventional counterparts.
• Such submarines can be deployed for longer periods and need to surface less frequently.
• These are nuclear-powered submarines and not armed with nuclear weapons.
• It will also include a new architecture of meetings and engagements between the 3 countries.
• It also includes cooperation across emerging technologies like AI, quantum technologies as well as undersea capabilities.

Indo-pacific:

• It is sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia.
• It is a biogeographic region of Earth's seas, consisting of the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia.
• It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, Tropical Eastern Pacific, along the Pacific coast of the Americas.