Contributed by Joe Montero

The AUKUS alliance involving the United States, Great Britain, and Australia goes under the pretence of being a security pact. It is part of a plan to establish a kind on NATO in the Asia-Pacific region, and this means it is organised to deploy military forces overseas and not to protect the member nations form attack.

NATO was established by a group of Western nations after the Second World War, to counter the Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations, which subsequently became the Warsaw Pact.

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Security Organisation, and it had little to do with security. Being under the real command of the United States, it was always a means expand the super-power’s economic and political interests. Today, it is the main reason for war in Ukraine.

After the ending of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw pact, NATO war repurposed to contain a re-emergence of the Soviet Union and expend to the East, to both encircle Russia and move in towards the Chinese border. This is the principal cause of the present war in Ukraine. The world should have demanded its dissolution long ago.

United States policy is to carry out similar expansion in the Asia-Pacific and join NATO in the Eurasian landmass to create a pincer encircling China.

The United Kingdom plays along with this, because of its growing economic and political dependency on the United States, especially since Brexit. Being a long-time vassal of Wall Street and Washington, Australian governments have done what they are told, and AUKUS is just another example of this.

AUKUS has become more important since the alternative Quad Group made up of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan, has become less dependable. India is now shifting away and joining a trend that is building across most of Asia and the South Pacific.

The three English speaking nations, with two of them the former major colonial powers in the region, stepping up policing of thew region, starts to look like the return of colonialism under another guise.

Washington sent another of its war ships sailing between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland just days ago. There is a constant presence in the South China sea, where one of the world’s most important trading routes crosses. Both are provocations close to China’s border, and a threat to China’s capacity to carry out international trade. And the Australian political elite acts as number one cheerleader and a participant.

This is aggression. It is not defence. No wonder China is not amused.

Turn to the Solomon Islands. Behind all the carry on about a security pact and a Chinese military base, is the fact that the region’s small Island nations have been complaining about Australia’s bullying for a long time, and they understand that this is the result of Australia’s relationship with the United States.

Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, responded to Australia’s reaction to the Security Agreement by saying that the difference is that China treats the Soon Islands “with respect.”

Despite the reported alarm over a leaked draft of the agreement, the truth of the matter is, there are no plans for a Chinese naval base, and security assistance to cope with natural disaster and foreign attack.

This is a nation facing a major threat from climate warming caused rising sea levels.

Australia offers has offered little concrete help, fails to treat the independent small nation as an equal. Last year, and routinely interferes in its internal affairs. Last year Sogavare accused unnamed foreign powers of creating unrest. But it was clear that it meant Australia, and behind this, the United States. Pressure on Sogavare and his government to resign has been mounting.

Interference in the Solomon Islands and the plans for AUKUS are parts of the same package. This is to impose a regional political regime through gunboat diplomacy. This is power politics, aimed at securing compliant governments, serving the interests of the American empire.

The chances of success are small, and it is far more likely to result in building Australia’s reputation as a regional bully and growing isolation. This is not in Australia’s interests and the real threat to national security. We live in the Asian and South Pacific region and our future is bound up here.

It is high time the apron strings with the United States were cut and Australia truly stands up as an independent nation building good and lasting relationships with our neighbours.