China on Thursday warned that the AUKUS military alliance, made up of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, will undermine regional peace and especially the nuclear-weapon-free zone pact in force in the South Pacific.
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Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned his counterparts in the Pacific islands that this agreement would unleash an arms race and the area's stability would be at risk.
Wang called on such nations to join forces to counteract those attempts and defend the permanence of the global nuclear non-proliferation system.
The AUKUS alliance includes Australia in the group of countries with nuclear-powered submarines, which can travel much further without the need to surface.
So far, only six other nations globally, the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, India and France, operate such submarines.