In Australia on Saturday, the defence ministers of the UK and Australian Labor governments signed what they called an “historic” 50-year military pact, directed against China.
The treaty marks an escalation of the preparations for war against China, accompanied by an aggressive reassertion of the role of British imperialism in the Indo-Pacific region, where it once ruled and exploited lucrative colonies, from Africa and India to Australia and the Pacific.
After signing the treaty in the regional city of Geelong, near Melbourne, the UK’s John Healey and Australia’s Richard Marles explicitly linked the battle for control over the region to the US-NATO provoked war against Russia in Ukraine.
“Security of the Indo-Pacific is indivisible from the security in the Euro-Atlantic,” Healey declared, underlining the global character of the confrontations already well underway as the Trump administration accelerates conflicts against both Russia and China.
A closer military and strategic partnership is being forged by the British and Australian Labor governments, on behalf of their respective ruling classes, alongside their anti-China AUKUS pact with the US.
Healey said the “Geelong Treaty” was a commitment “to build the most advanced, most powerful attack submarines either of our nations have ever had.” It would “fortify the Indo-Pacific.”
Marles harked back to the period before World War I, when Australia was still a British dominion. “The Geelong Treaty represents one of the most significant treaties between Australia and the United Kingdom that has been signed since Federation,” he said.
“In military terms, what it will deliver is the biggest leap in Australia’s military capability, really, since the formation of the navy back in 1913.”
According to a brief official joint statement: “The Geelong Treaty is a historic agreement, the commitment for the next 50 years of UK-Australian bilateral defence cooperation under AUKUS Pillar I.”
The treaty would “enable Australia and the UK to deliver a cutting-edge undersea capability” through the AUKUS submarine program to “support stability and security in the Euro‑Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific for decades to come.”
Under the false banner of “stability and security,” the pact evidently involves plans to spend many billions of dollars in building nuclear-powered long-range attack submarines for use against China.
A copy of the treaty posted on the Australian parliamentary web site reveals that it requires Australia to enable visits of UK nuclear submarines to Australian ports. It also requires Australia to “manage, store, operate, use, transport and dispose of any nuclear equipment or nuclear material.”
Regardless of the grandiose “50-year” claims, either party can terminate the agreement by giving one year’s written notice, pointing to the possibility of a breakdown in relations as global geostrategic tensions escalate.
In addition, Australia has waived any liability against the UK government if there are problems with the design or any equipment supplied, including the nuclear reactors for the AUKUS submarines eventually to be built in Australia.
In an effort to head off anti-war opposition, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that it was told that the Albanese government had not made any additional direct funding commitments to the UK submarine industrial base under the treaty.
The Labor government has already pledged more than $4 billion to bolster submarine production in the UK, and a similar amount to speed up production in the US, as part of a total commitment of $368 billion.
The treaty involves the development of war economies in both countries. The statement claims it would “create thousands of jobs, build our respective submarine industrial bases and supply chains, and provide new opportunities for industry partners.”
Marles declared: “AUKUS will see 20,000 jobs in Australia. It will see, in building submarines in this country, the biggest industrial endeavour in our nation’s history, bigger even than the Snowy Hydro scheme.”
This means that workers and young people will increasingly have their employment prospects tied to military industries and weapons manufacturers—a scenario already backed by the trade union apparatuses that will enforce the resulting wartime-like working conditions.
Together with expanded US access under AUKUS to bases across northern Australia, the treaty places Australia and its population on the frontlines of a potentially disastrous war against China.
An aircraft carrier media conference
To underscore their governments’ intent, Healey and Marles travelled on Sunday to the strategic northern port of Darwin to further hail the alliance at a joint media conference aboard the UK’s aircraft carrier, the Prince of Wales.
Speaking from the aircraft carrier’s hangar, both Healy and Marles underscored the significance of the warship’s visit to Australia, the first by a UK aircraft carrier since 1997. Marles remarked: “It’s the first time we’ve had a non-American carrier participate in Talisman Sabre.”
The warship, its aircraft and its troops are participating in the massive 19-nation Talisman Sabre war games across northern Australia and neighbouring Papua New Guinea, which amount to a dress rehearsal for a war against China.
These exercises, the largest ever in the history of the biennial war games, feature a show of force against China, led by US warships and the testing of new US long-range missile systems. They also became the backdrop to three days of meetings between the UK and Australian defence and foreign ministers.
Some indication of the treaty’s geostrategic and political implications was provided by a joint statement issued last Friday after the annual Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN) talks in Sydney.
The statement, also signed by UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, declared: “Ministers reaffirmed that the security, resilience and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions are interconnected.”
Moreover, “Ministers agreed the UK and Australia’s enduring engagement in the Indo-Pacific was important to shaping a favourable strategic balance in the region.”
While making cosmetic references to “adherence to rules and norms, rather than power or coercion,” the statement was explicitly directed against Russia and China, even as the Trump administration’s tariff war and demands for far greater military buildups from US allies continue to shatter the post-World War II order.
As has become customary, the statement accused China of a litany of offences, including “coercive or destabilising activities” in the South China Sea and “the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans.”
It was most provocative regarding Taiwan, expressing “concern at China’s destabilising military exercises around Taiwan.” Both the UK and Australia, like the US, formally adhere to the “One China” policy that de facto recognises Beijing as the legitimate government over all China, including Taiwan.
Nevertheless, the statement “committed to support Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations where statehood is not a pre-requisite or as an observer or guest where it is.” It also vowed to “deepen relations with Taiwan in the economic, trade, scientific, technological, and cultural fields.”
In reality, the US is seeking to goad Beijing into attacking Taiwan—just as it provoked Russia into invading Ukraine. The Biden and Trump administrations have undermined the “One China” policy, boosted arms sales to Taiwan and returned US military forces to the island, making it a flashpoint for war. The US is determined to prevent China’s economic growth from undermining America’s global dominance.
The AUKMIN statement not only reiterated the two governments’ commitment to arming and financially supporting Ukraine, but “agreed to step up action against Russia’s war machine.” It went further by accusing China of supporting “Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”
The ministers professed “grave concerns at the horrific and intolerable situation in Gaza” and “the immense suffering of civilians, including Israel’s blocking of essential aid.” Yet they continued to back the underlying US-Israeli operation to establish unfettered control over the Middle East. They “reiterated their support for Israel’s security” and insisted that Iran had to be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The four ministers foreshadowed escalating UK-Australian military operations throughout the Indo-Pacific, including “increased port visits and the rotational presence of a UK Astute Class [nuclear] submarine at HMAS Stirling” near Perth.
While the Trump administration is conducting a review of the AUKUS agreement, both its partners are moving urgently to defend their own imperialist interests and intensify their own preparations for a catastrophic US-led war against China.