US allies' move on nuclear submarines for Australia a boost to region's hard power, analysts say | South China Morning Post

Australia's plan to build eight nuclear-powered submarines under an Indo-Pacific security pact with the United States and Britain has delivered a jolt to the regional security status quo, analysts said, reinforcing hard power capabilities missing from existing agreements. It is also likely to prompt calls to give greater force to existing defence alliances and security groupings that critics have described as having ambiguous functions and aims that do not reflect the changing balance of power in the region. These could include groupings such as the Quad, the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance and the long-standing Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), a…