UK's Labour Party passes emergency motion against AUKUS, calls pact 'dangerous'

Even as the UK argued that the trilateral AUKUS defence pact that seeks to bolster the Indo-Pacific regional security is an “essential deal” that Britain should “no longer be half-hearted” about, the Labour members on Monday denounced the Prime Minister Boris Johnson-led government for signing the pact. At an emergency motion planned at the Labour Party conference, the lawmakers called UK’s AUKUS a “dangerous move which will undermine world peace”. The security pact, they said, will destabilise the Indo-Pacific region as it would trigger a nuclear arms race and destroy world peace. Furthermore, the party asked the Johnson administration to adhere to the terms of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But the shadow defence secretary John Healey and Labour leader Keir Starmer welcomed the pact.

UK’s main opposition Labour party's delegates passed the emergency motion against AUKUS by 70.35 percent to 29.65 percent, reports confirmed. "AUKUS is starting a new nuclear arms race and the cold war. We must keep speaking out against it," former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Twitter. Labour echoed concerns made vocal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a global nuclear watchdog that issued a statement, saying it was worried over the proliferation of nuclear materials and technologies due to trilateral pact AUKUS.

"The IAEA will engage with them (Australia, the United States and Britain) on this matter in line with its statutory mandate, and in accordance with their respective safeguards agreements with the Agency," the IAEA said in a statement. 

The UK’s Labour Party argued that the AUKUS will undermine global non-proliferation efforts and threaten the security of the South Asian region, indicating that the pact will trigger a nuclear arms race due to cold wars between the US, China, and Iran. AUKUS pact, that apparently bypasses the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will allow the non-nuclear-weapon countries to stockpile the nuclear material, and have leeway for diversion from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection as they would argue that the material would be utilised for submarine propulsion, the IAEA fears. 

Via the landmark security deal, Canberra will have the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs) becoming only the seventh in the world to have a US-manufactured Virginia class or UK Astute Class subs fleet. The trio alliance also pushed Australia to scrap the $90 billion submarine contract with France for the supply of 12 diesel-electric powered Shortfin Barracuda of the French Suffren class. But the first submarine for Australia will enter Indo-Pacific waters by 2030s, just a few years short of when its Collins-class submarines will withdraw in 2036, reports confirm. This means a widened window of opportunity for China or Iran to create friction in the Indo pacific waters, an issue the Labour Party pressed on Monday. 

Pact 'not intended to be adversarial': UK PM

UK PM Boris Johnson had said in a joint statement with US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that the new strategic alliance aims to “defend our shared interests in the Indo-Pacific” and the alliance is a “historic step”. But as Britain’s new military pact began hoarding condemnation back home, Johnson asserted that the pact is “not intended to be adversarial towards any other power”, and dodged former prime minister Theresa May’s question about what would the UK do in case of the Chinese invasion of Taiwan amid indo-pacific regional tensions over the alliance. “The United Kingdom remains determined to defend international law,” he told the House of Commons, as per 10 Downing Street’s transcript. 

North Korea had also derided the pact as “dangerous” slamming the US and the UK for supplying Australia with nuclear submarines. North Korea's Foreign Ministry was quoted by state press as slamming the  three-way defence partnership, which it said, is "extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of the nuclear arms race." "This shows that the US is the chief culprit toppling the international nuclear non-proliferation system," it added.