AUKUS development to undermine stability in Asia-Pacific, Russian diplomat warns

GENEVA, September 18. /TASS/. The further development of the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US could trigger a new arms race and undermine stability in the Asia-Pacific, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Andrey Belousov said.

"The further development of the AUKUS partnership could undermine stability in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and it could also trigger a new arms race. All this activity, which indicates fairly clear prospects of nuclear weapons emerging in Australia, creates conditions for Canberra’s involvement in schemes and practices of joint nuclear missions similar to those of NATO," he noted at the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna.

Russia has no doubt that such a scenario would have a destabilizing impact on the security situation in the Asia-Pacific, significantly increasing the existing nuclear proliferation risks.