The fig-leaf of a “rules-based order”

Written by: Nick G. on 26 July 2022

The 24th annual Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense (CHODs) Conference is being held in Sydney from 25 to 27 July 2022. The theme for this year’s conference is Promoting the Rules-Based Order in the Indo-Pacific.

Having the US co-host an event with this theme is just like Al Capone running a convention on crime prevention.

Of particular significance for the Indo-Pacific is the refusal of the US to sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This makes a mockery of US and Australian criticisms of China over whatever incidents may arouse their ire in the South China Seas. 

Neither has the US signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which is aimed at establishing a permanent international tribunal to prosecute individuals accused of genocide and other serious international crimes, such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression. US imperialist soldiers can commit these crimes with immunity from prosecution under the international rules-based order.

US imperialism has also rejected the protocol of monitoring bioweapons to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), so all its biolabs worldwide have no transparency. By their own admission, they have 336 such laboratories around the world. 

None of the major imperialist powers or Australia have signed the Kampala Amendments on the Crime of Aggression.  

The so-called “rules-based order” is simply a fig-leaf for US attempts to coerce other nations to its own self-interested imperialist agenda.

Australia is so compliant it hardly needs any coercion. Regrettably, it will fully cooperate with its US overlords, using the Conference to “find more ways to increase interoperability and share information and technologies,” according to Admiral Aquilino.

Our need for anti-imperialist independence and socialism will not be debated in “Defense Chief” conferences, but will be heard more and more loudly in the days to come.

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