Australia confident US will proceed with Biden-era submarine pact after review
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Under the multi-stage pact, four US commanded Virginia-class submarines (above) will be hosted at a Western Australian navy base on the Indian Ocean from 2027
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SYDNEY – Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles on June 12 said he was confident the Aukus submarine pact with the US and Britain would proceed, and his government would work closely with the United States while the Trump administration conducted a formal review
In an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio interview, Mr Marles said Aukus was in the strategic interests of all three countries and the new review of the deal signed in 2021 when Mr Joe Biden was the US president was not a surprise.
“I am very confident this is going to happen,” he said of Aukus, which would give Australia nuclear-powered submarines.
“This is a multi-decade plan. There will be governments that come and go, and I think whenever we see a new government, a review of this kind is going to be something which will be undertaken,” Mr Marles told the ABC.
Australia in 2023 committed to spend A$368 billion (S$305.9 billion) over three decades on Aukus, Australia's biggest ever defence project with the US and Britain, to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet US President Donald Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting in Canada, where the security allies will discuss tariffs and a US request for Australia to increase defence spending from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product.
Mr Albanese had previously said defence spending would rise to 2.3 per cent and has declined to commit to the US target, saying Australia would focus on capability needs.
Under Aukus, Australia was scheduled to make a US$2 billion (S$2.57 billion) payment in 2025 to the US to help boost its submarine shipyards and speed up lagging production rates of Virginia-class submarines to allow the sale of up to three US submarines to Australia from 2032.
The first US$500 million payment was made
US not meeting production targets
The Pentagon’s top policy adviser Elbridge Colby, who has previously expressed concern the US would lose submarines to Australia at a critical time for military deterrence against China, will be a key figure in the review, examining the production rate of Virginia-class submarines, Mr Marles said.
“It is important that those production and sustainment rates are improved,” he added.
Aukus would grow the US and Australian defence industries and generate thousands of manufacturing jobs, Mr Marles said in a statement.
Mr John Lee, an Australian Indo-Pacific expert at Washington’s conservative Hudson Institute think-tank, said the Pentagon review was “primarily an audit of American capability” and whether it can afford to sell up to five nuclear-powered submarines when it was not meeting its own production targets.
“Relatedly, the low Australian defence spending and ambiguity as to how it might contribute to a Taiwan contingency is also a factor,” he added.
Mr John Hamre, president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a former senior Pentagon official, told a Lowy Institute seminar in Sydney on June 12 that there is a perception in Washington that “the Albanese government has been supportive of Aukus but not really leaning in on Aukus”, and defence spending is part of this.
Under the multi-stage pact, four US commanded Virginia submarines will be hosted at a Western Australian navy base on the Indian Ocean from 2027, which a senior US Navy commander told Congress in April gives the US a “straight shot to the South China Sea”.
Mr Albanese wants to buy three Virginia submarines from 2032 to bring the submarine force under Australian command.
Britain and Australia will jointly build a new Aukus-class submarine expected to come into service from 2040.
Following a recent defence review, Britain said it would boost spending on its attack submarine fleet under Aukus.
Former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, who struck the Aukus deal with Mr Biden, said on June 12 that Australia should “make the case again” for the treaty.
Aukus would build more submarines across the three partners and was “fundamentally about strengthening collective deterrence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific against potential adversaries”, he wrote on LinkedIn. REUTERS
