Robert Patman

Opinion | US arms sales to Israel hurt America’s credibility on Aukus

The claim that Aukus is about safeguarding international law in the Indo-Pacific sounds hypocritical, after the US-enabled carnage in Gaza

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Robert Patman

Published: 5:30am, 7 Sep 2024Updated: 7:43am, 7 Sep 2024

The strategic fallout from the Biden administration’s policy of “ironclad” support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s unrelenting military campaign in Gaza is likely to be much more substantial than many in Washington currently imagine.

If there is one thing that seems to unite many US politicians across an otherwise divided society, it is the conviction that China is a “systemic threat” to American primacy on the international stage.

However, the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s unrelenting ground and air assault in Gaza after the horrendous Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 has severely undermined the United States’ global reputation at a time when its international competition with China has intensified.

It should be recalled that in September 2021, the governments of Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced the formation of Aukus, an enhanced security partnership intended to bolster the international rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific and promote stability and prosperity in a region with about 60 per cent of the world’s population.

China was not explicitly identified as a threat at the outset, but the formation of Aukus has clearly been a response to the perceived challenge of China’s growing assertiveness in the region and beyond.

The Aukus security pact consists of two pillars. Pillar 1 involves Aukus partners helping Australia acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines over the next three decades. Pillar 2 is about sharing information on cutting-edge defence technologies, including artificial intelligence, quantum capabilities and cybersecurity.