Oceania

Climate change will shape Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s international program, and his political future

From specific details of the submarines to the larger implications for Australia’s military and regional strategy, there are lots of question marks.

Australia’s strategic location makes its deployment of SSNs a much greater asset to broader Western interests than if other U.S. allies did the same.

Up until September 15, French-Australian naval relations were burgeoning. Now that once-promising future is in doubt.

“It’s not just a Franco-Australian affair, but a rupture of trust in alliances,” France’s foreign minister declared.

What does the Australia-U.K.-U.S. alliance mean for New Zealand?

Australia’s announcement that it will be building nuclear-powered submarines with American and British help will take years to pay military dividends, but the strategic impacts start immediately.

New Delhi and Canberra have had to bear the brunt of increasingly belligerent Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific, pushing their bilateral relationship to new heights.

The move prompted a French official to describe the Australian choice as "a stab in the back."

Given the HRPP’s refusal to accept the April election results, the Samoan speaker refused the party’s MPs entry to parliament. 

There’s no doubt the two are allies, but the cost of shallow bilateralism will have lasting effects on people-to-people exchanges.