Archives AUKUS Military Alliance - New Eastern Outlook

The recent meeting between the defense ministers of Australia and the United States demonstrated the importance of the military alliance between these nations to their leaderships. However, the costs of this alliance to Australia are becoming prohibitive.

At the end of January, “on the sidelines” of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the first negotiations for the new US administration took place between the foreign ministers of countries that are, in essence, an informal military structure within the “Quad” bloc.

Over the years, the AUKUS and Quad military blocs, as any reasonable observer will have noted, have become sources of militarization in the Asia-Pacific region. However, one of the risks associated with these and other US regional alliances, and one which has so far been overlooked, is the potential, in the near future, for nuclear proliferation and the spread of dual-use technologies in this part of the world.