Awkward AUKUS Arrival

AUKUS – a new trilateral security partnership between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. – has left some friends and foes fuming. Australia scrapped a $66 billion submarine contract with France in favor of developing faster and quieter nuclear-powered submarines with its new partners. While Paris recalled its ambassadors to Washington and Canberra, Beijing denounced the partnership as an irresponsible, Cold War-style arrangement that threatens stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Other Indo-Pacific countries that share the AUKUS group's concerns about Chinese regional military expansion welcomed the move.