U.S., U.K., Australia Leaders To Meet March 13 on ‘AUKUS Partnership,’ a Pacific NATO Against China and Russia

March 9, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—In the Pacific city of San Diego, California, on March 13, a meeting is set for President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on the topic of the AUKUS Partnership, the security pact among the U.S., Australia, and the U.K. The White House has released very few details. Albanese will be coming to the U.S. directly from his meeting in India. There is speculation that among the results of the meeting might be to support Australia to start building nuclear submarines.

There are some wild-eyed Dr. Strangelove-type squawks coming from various quarters, including from ranking U.S. military, about potential military encounters in the Pacific in the near and distant future.

On March 8, a scenario was drawn out for how and why the U.S. Navy must sink Chinese Navy ships off Taiwan’s east coast, as a priority, if war breaks out over Taiwan. This was from Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), who addressed the March 6-8 AFA 2023 Warfare Symposium, in Aurora, Colorado. He said that lessons were learned on how to scramble military activity, from the Aug. 3, 2022 visit of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan. Wilsbach told the reporters: “We’ve got to sink the ships. Sinking ships is a main objective of not only PACAF but really anyone that’s going to be involved in a conflict like this,” he was quoted as saying by Military.com.

On March 7 in Australia, The Age newspaper ran a prominent spread, “Australia ‘Must Prepare’ for the Threat of China War,” part of a three-day series culminating in a joint communiqué and including recommendations for action, titled “Red Alert.” A March 7 editorial informs: “Australians have been kept in the dark about the threat posed by China. ... [An] expert panel assembled by The Age ... thinks fighting could come as early as 2026, should Chinese President Xi Jinping take the opportunity while the U.S. and its allies are unprepared and distracted by the war in Ukraine, which has vacuumed up the Western world’s stocks of ammunition and military equipment.”