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March 14, 2023

Biden Formally Announces Deal to Sell Nuclear-Powered Subs to Australia
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President Joe Biden has formally unveiled plans to arm Australia with
nuclear-powered submarines in a bid to counter China's influence in the
Indo-Pacific. Biden announced the agreement alongside U.K. Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a
meeting in San Diego on Monday. The deal will see Australia equipped
with three conventionally armed, Virginia-class nuclear-powered
submarines by the 2030s, with an option to purchase two more subs, as
part of a new military alliance called AUKUS. In Beijing, a Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesperson called on the U.S., U.K. and Australia to
abandon what she called a "Cold War mentality and zero-sum game."

Mao Ning: "We believe that the cooperation among the three countries
poses a serious nuclear proliferation risk, impacts the international
nuclear nonproliferation system, stimulates the arms race, undermines
peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and is widely questioned
and opposed by regional countries and the international community."

Biden's meeting with leaders of the U.K. and Australia came as the
Pentagon released its proposed $842 billion budget for fiscal year 2024
- requesting $25 billion more than Congress approved last year. It would
be the largest so-called peacetime budget in U.S. history.


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