Five days after President Joe Biden's call to Chinese President Xi Jinping that many thought was a conciliatory gesture, the US announced the secret military pact with the UK and Australia called Aukus, with a deal to supply eight nuclear submarines to Australia. It would make Australia the first country in the world with nuclear-powered submarines that didn't have weapons, highly suspicious to any intelligent power, especially given the US and the UK record of bombing nonaligned countries. France considered the deal a "backstabbing" by allies and temporarily withdrew her ambassadors from the US and Australia.
To downplay the criticisms that the US "defense" deal is a white man's club, Biden had his first in-person meeting with the non-Western Quad leaders Narendra Modi of India and Yoshihide Suga of Japan in the White House to line up against China.
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