Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has called on Australia to end its ‘subservience’ to the United States and rebuild its reputation as a country that ‘acts on its own’, including by turning to peaceful cooperation with China.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Varoufakis, a former Greek minister who holds an Australian passport, said a diplomatic approach to Beijing would be a ‘much better way’ than buying nuclear-powered submarines that would ‘force China’s political class to close ranks around an authoritarian core’.
Varoufakis’ speech came a year after Australia, the UK and the US announced the timetable for the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia as part of the AUKUS alliance, which aims to reduce China’s influence.
Downshift in expectations for deal
Expectations for the deal were dampened by reports that Washington was planning to slow down submarine production.
The new defence budget of President Joe Biden’s administration has halved submarine production, reducing Virginia-class submarine production from two to one by 2025.
This has raised questions about Washington’s ability to meet its commitment to sell Canberra up to five nuclear-powered vessels from the 2030s.
The latest US announcement was expected by critics of the AUKUS, such as respected Australian defence expert Hugh White, who argued that Australia did not need such submarines and that Washington’s ability to deliver them was questionable.
On Wednesday, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told local media that the US would not sacrifice its own defence needs to meet Australia’s. “The Americans are not going to make their own submarine deficit worse than it already is by giving or selling submarines to Australia,” he said.
Senate inquiry into AUKUS submarine nuclear waste
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denied that the deviation would derail Canberra’s submarine purchase plans, saying he remained committed to the purchase and pointing out that Australia’s agreement with the US and Britain had already been approved by the US Congress.
On the same day, a Senate inquiry was held in Canberra into new legislation that would allow the nationwide dumping of nuclear waste from AUKUS submarines.
Varoufakis said that using weapons such as submarines to counter Beijing’s aggression in the South China Sea was not the answer.
Citing Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, he said that current world events proved this.
“After repeated promises not to expand NATO, which have been completely violated by the West… does that justify Putin using this particular violation of promises as a weapon to invade Ukraine? I don’t think so,” he said.
“In other words, let’s be reasonable. Let’s keep diplomatic proportionality. And certainly let’s not spend A$368 billion on submarines that will be of no use to Australia, that will do nothing – it will do nothing to alleviate the threats that you’re talking about,” Varoufakis said.
‘A false perspective on a non-existent threat’
While it is right to be concerned that Beijing is ‘backtracking’ on its promises not to militarise the South China Sea, Varoufakis said diplomacy or at most ‘some military manoeuvres commensurate with the threat’ were needed.
He said Australia should only respond if there is a real provocation, such as Chinese ships entering Australian territorial waters, otherwise weapons such as AUKUS submarines ‘create a false perspective of a threat that does not exist’.
Similar warnings have been issued by former Australian officials such as former Prime Minister Paul Keating.
Varoufakis said the AUKUS deal would ‘give impetus to a new Cold War’ and that Australia would do more for its reputation by neutralising such an initiative than by participating in it.
“Australia has an obligation to defuse the new Cold War. This can only be done by ending Australia’s subservience to the US, which actively creates threats and makes us pay for protection from those threats,” he said.
Fears over loss of dollar hegemony
“Imagine an Australia that helps bring about a just peace in Ukraine instead of a senseless perpetual war… An unaligned Australia that is never neutral in the face of injustice, but at the same time does not automatically participate in every warmongering adventure its allies decide on,” Varoufakis continued.
He said Washington’s move to contain Beijing was motivated neither by Beijing’s growing military power nor by concerns that it might invade Taiwan, but by fears that US global financial dominance would be disrupted by China’s ‘cloud capital’ systems, including non-bank online payment methods.
“America’s hegemony … is entirely based on its ability to maintain its monopoly on international dollar-denominated payments,” Varoufakis said, adding that ‘this is what allows the US to make the rest of the world pay for its deficits’.
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