AUKUS and India's Indo-Pacific Strategy
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231197785 |
| Author | Laxman Kumar Behera |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
AUKUS and India’s
Indo-Pacific Strategy
Laxman Kumar Behera
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Abstract
The rollout of AUKUS represents a tectonic shift in the geopolitical rivalry between China
and other Indo-Pacific nations. The coming together of three major democratic countries
in a strategic technology pact to counter the authoritarian China in the Indo-Pacificcould
not have come at a more opportune time for India, which is facing increasing Chinese hos-
tility on its northern land borders and strategic encirclement in South Asia and the Indian
Ocean Region (IOR). This article discusses AUKUS’s potential impacts on India and exam-
ines India’s Indo-Pacific strategy, its participation in the Quad, and its naval strategy. I argue
that, on balance, AUKUS’sbenefits for India far outweigh its costs.
Keywords
AUKUS, India, Indo-Pacific, Indian Ocean, Indian navy
On 15 September 2021, the leaders of Australia, the UK, and the US stunned the inter-
national community by announcing a tripartite strategic technology agreement—
dubbed AUKUS—with the intention of countering China’s military assertiveness in
the Indo-Pacific. Negotiated in utmost secrecy and coming just a month after the
chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the agreement was viewed as the “most sig-
nificant security arrangement between three nations since World War II”
1
and also as
Corresponding author:
Laxman Kumar Behera, Special Centre for National Security Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi, 110067, India.
Emails: lkbehera@mail.jnu.ac.in;laxmanbehera@gmail.com
1. Akshobh Giridharadas, “Why the AUKUS helps the Quad,”ORF, 21 October 2021, https://www.
orfonline.org/expert-speak/why-the-aukus-helps-the-quad/ (accessed 22 June 2023).
Scholarly Essay
International Journal
2023, Vol. 78(3) 375–393
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00207020231197785
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijx
“America’s most dramatic and determined move yet to counter what it and others in the
Indo-Pacific region see as a growing threat from China.”
2
One expert even argued that
AUKUS is a “move designed to discourage or thwart any future Chinse bid for
regional hegemony.”
3
Encompassing a number of advanced technologies relating to cybersecurity,
artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and underseas warfare, the highlight
of the security pact was its arrangement to enable the Australian navy to acquire,
with British and American technological assistance, at least eight conventionally
armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). The submarine technology is
so sensitive and advanced that the US has not shared it with any country other
than its closest transatlantic security partner, the UK, since 1958.
4
With the induc-
tion of the SSNs, Australia will be the first country to operate such a potent sub-
mersible weapon platform without having nuclear weapons or a nuclear energy
programme.
5
The AUKUS announcement, however, caused outrage in France, as Australia’s
decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines led it to cancel the massive US
$66 billion deal it had signed in 2016 to acquire twelve conventional submarines
from the Naval Group, in which the French government has a majority stake. That
Paris was kept in the dark throughout the AUKUS negotiation process, and that
Australia kept assuring France of the satisfactory progress of their conventional
submarine deal until the very day of AUKUS’s rollout, prompted the French
foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to denounce the new deal as a “stab in
the back.”
6
Paris subsequently recalled its ambassadors from Washington and
Canberra.
Notwithstanding the initial French indignation, AUKUS’s momentum has spurred
other cooperative agreements to acquire and develop advanced military technologies.
Since the September 2021 announcement, AUKUS’s scope has been expanded to
incorporate other technologies including hypersonic, counter-hypersonic, and elec-
tronic warfare capabilities, reflecting the group’s heightened ongoing concerns about
China. For its part, China predictably has accused AUKUS of having “seriously
2. “AUKUS reshapes the strategic landscape of the Indo-Pacific,”The Economist, 25 September 2021,
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/09/25/aukus-reshapes-the-strategic-landscape-of-the-indo-
pacific(accessed 9 July 2023).
3. Stephen M. Walt, “The AUKUS dominoes are just starting to fall,”Foreign Policy, 18 September 2021,
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/18/aukus-australia-united-states-submarines-china-really-means/
(accessed 22 June 2023).
4. “Brazil might get nuclear-powered submarines even before Australia,”The Economist, 30 September
2021, https://www.economist.com/the-americas/brazil-might-get-nuclear-powered-submarines-even-
before-australia/21805075 (accessed 9 July 2023).
5. India Leaders for Social Sector (ILSS), “AUKUS: New capabilities for old allies,”Strategic Survey 2022
(Oxon: Routledge, 2022), 168.
6. Angelique Chrisafis and Daniel Boffey, ‘“Stab in the back’: French fury as Australia scraps submarine
deal,”The Guardian, 16 September 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/16/stab-in-the-
back-french-fury-australia-scraps-submarine-deal (accessed 9 July 2023).
376 International Journal 78(3)
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