The recent security pact between the US, UK, and Australia “threatens to undermine the existing security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region,” a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Such a partnership also potentially carries risks for the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, Maria Zakharova said at the Third Eurasian Women’s Forum in the Russian port city of Saint Petersburg.

After the AUKUS alliance was unveiled on Sept. 15, Australia canceled a multibillion-dollar deal for French submarines because it will now get technology from the US and UK to build nuclear-powered submarines.

The “stab in the back” enraged France to the extent that it recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington for a while.

The AUKUS pact is seen as another attempt – after the Quad alliance of the US, Japan, Australia, and India – to counter China’s expanding economic and military influence in the wider Asia-Pacific region, with particular focus on the South China Sea.

AA