The United Kingdom and the United States provided the IAEA with written guarantees: Australia will retain the status of a state without nuclear weapons, since it will not enrich uranium and produce fuel for power plants on submarines, but will only receive all this from partners. Thus, the Australian submarines will be equipped with nuclear engines, but the missiles on them will be without nuclear warheads, at least at first.
China expressed its dissatisfaction. The Chinese Foreign Ministry believes that the military bloc has chosen the wrong tactics of confrontation with China. There are questions about the actions of the US and its allies in the Kremlin as well.
“Here, in any case, a lot of questions arise related to the problem of nonproliferation. Of course, special transparency is needed here and it is necessary to answer those questions that arise”– said Dmitry Peskov.
Australia will buy up to five Virginia-class submarines from the US in early 2030. Thus, a non-nuclear power will actually join the club of countries possessing technologies for creating atomic weapons.
