MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2023) Australia may play a major role in ending dependence on China for critical minerals needed for the defense industry, which should become one of the tasks of the AUKUS alliance, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said on Thursday.
The trilateral partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia (AUKUS) was launched in September 2021 based on the premise that the US and UK would provide Canberra with the technology to obtain its own nuclear-capable submarines, which is dubbed Pillar 1. Pillar 2 of the alliance includes development of other technologies, including in the production of critical minerals.
"Yet all AUKUS capabilities, and the rules-based order that they uphold, depend heavily on critical minerals. China eclipses not only AUKUS for processing those minerals into usable forms, but the rest of the world combined. Without critical minerals, states are open to economic coercion in various technological industries, and defence manufacturing is particularly exposed to unnecessary supply-chain challenges. This is where Australia comes in. Australia has the essential minerals, which are more readily exploitable because they're located in less densely populated or ecologically sensitive areas," the ASPI said in its report titled "AUKUS and critical minerals: hedging Beijing's pervasive, clever and coordinated statecraft."
While all three countries have some differences in defining the critical minerals, the report concentrated on those that are common for them. These are antimony, bismuth, cobalt, 16 rare earth metals, as well as gallium, graphite, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, platinum group metals, tantalum, and tungsten.
"Given that all AUKUS capabilities rely on critical minerals, the AUKUS countries should add critical minerals into AUKUS Pillar 2, and in doing so develop a consistent definition of critical minerals among the partners," the report read.
The think tank argues that China currently dominates the world production and supply of critical minerals, and only Australia is able to "challenge" China and achieve diversification.
"This is what AUKUS needs to diversify away from Beijing's mineral domination�although the road to a secure supply-chain solution will be long. That's why Australia, and more specifically WA (Western Australia), must be the indisputable focal point for a major new AUKUS-led critical-mineral "megastructure," the report said.
The reported was prepared by former Australian Defense Minister Kim Beazley and government strategic advisor Ben Halton.
