Western nations are planning to integrate NATO forces with the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Mr Putin said this on Tuesday at the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security.

“We do not rule out that the matter is heading towards full integration of NATO forces with the AUKUS bloc structures that are being created,” he stated.

Australia, the U.S., and the UK announced a new trilateral defense partnership called AUKUS in September 2021.

“The first initiative announced under the AUKUS defense pact was the development of nuclear-powered submarine technology for the Royal Australian Navy.

“So the Australian government decided to abandon its then-estimated $66 billion deal with France’s Naval Group to build diesel-electric submarines,” Mr Putin said.

The pact also includes cooperation on advanced cyber mechanisms, artificial intelligence, autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic warfare, electronic warfare, innovation, and information sharing.

The pact will focus on military capability, separating it from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance that also includes New Zealand and Canada.

The International Centre for Defence and Security called the pact “a powerful statement about the priority of the Indo-Pacific” and a statement “that the larger institutional groupings aren’t acting with the common purpose and speed that the current strategic and technological environment demands”.

The U.S. Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, called the pact a “greater and deeper partnership” between the countries and said that it would provide a “lot of deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific region of the world.

(Sputnik/NAN)