RT reported on former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating warning that the AUKUS (Australia-U.K.-U.S.) military agreement is a danger to the nation: “So AUKUS is really about, in American terms, the military control of Australia,” Keating said, adding that the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is “likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States.”
Keating argued in an interview on Australia’s ABC on Aug. 8 that, by allowing the U.S. to “displace our military” and surround the country with bases, Canberra is essentially giving up its right to determine its foreign and defense policy. Australia will “completely lose” its strategic autonomy as a result, he claimed. He added that the expanded military presence makes the country a target from China’s point of view. “We’re now defending the fact that we’re in AUKUS.… If we did not have an aggressive ally, like the United States, aggressive to others in the region, there would be nobody attacking Australia. We are better left alone,” Keating said.
