UNITED NATIONS, November 6. /TASS/. Moscow expects to receive answers to its questions regarding the creation of a military partnership involving the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (AUKUS), Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva Andrei Belousov, who represented Russia at recent meetings of the UN General Assembly's First Committee in New York, told Russian reporters.
"Naturally, Russia has put these questions before the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] in Vienna, we expect to receive answers," he pointed out. "We support the concerns that our Chinese colleagues have voiced. ASEAN nations expressed quite serious concerns at the First Committee's session because they view the trilateral technology partnership as a threat to regional security. In particular, the delegations of Indonesia and Malaysia said that the implementation of that initiative might trigger an arms race in the region," Belousov noted.
According to him, these concerns are legitimate because this kind of cooperation is related to the nuclear field and clearly has a military dimension. "One needs to get full information on the matter to draw conclusions and raise questions about the initiative's possible impact on security and nuclear non-proliferation and figure out if the partnership is in line with the obligations that its members have under various international agreements," the Russian deputy UN envoy stressed.
On September 15, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced the formation of a new security pact called AUKUS. Australia particularly intends to use American technologies to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines and equip its armed forces with US-made cruise missiles.