Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned his counterparts in the Pacific islands that this agreement will unleash an arms race and the stability of the area will be at risk.

Wang called on such nations to join forces to counteract those attempts and defend the permanence of the global nuclear non-proliferation system.

The Aukus alliance includes Australia in the group of countries with nuclear-powered submarines, which can travel much further without the need to surface.

So far, only six other nations in the world, the United States, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, India and France, operate such submarines.

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