Beijing:

China warned on Tuesday that Australia, the UK and the USA had been treading a “path of error and hazard” after they unveiled a nuclear-powered submarines deal.

“The most recent joint assertion from the US, UK and Australia demonstrates that the three nations, for the sake of their very own geopolitical pursuits, fully disregard the considerations of the worldwide communities and are strolling additional and additional down the trail of error and hazard,” overseas ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin stated.

Australia introduced on Monday it might purchase as much as 5 US nuclear-powered submarines, then construct a brand new mannequin with US and British know-how beneath an bold plan to bulk up Western muscle throughout the Asia-Pacific within the face of a rising China.

US President Joe Biden has pressured that Australia, which joined a newly shaped alliance with Washington and London often known as AUKUS 18 months in the past, won’t be getting nuclear weapons.

Nevertheless, buying submarines powered by nuclear reactors places Australia in an elite membership and on the forefront of US-led efforts to push again in opposition to Chinese language navy enlargement.

Wang accused the three Western allies on Tuesday of inciting an arms race, saying the safety deal was “a typical case of Chilly Battle mentality”.

The sale of submarines “constitutes a extreme nuclear proliferation danger, and violates the goals and aims of the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Wang stated at a daily information convention.

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