Biden to host Australian, British leaders on Aukus defence pact

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden will host leaders of Australia and Britain in San Diego next week to chart a way forward on providing nuclear-powered submarines and other high-tech weaponry to Australia, sources familiar with the plans have said.

A spokesman said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would visit the United States on Monday to meet Mr Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

for talks on the Aukus defence agreement.

Sources familiar with the planning said a trilateral summit would take place in San Diego on Monday to unveil new details of the

2021 Aukus pact

conceived as part of efforts to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Mr Albanese said before leaving on a visit to India on Wednesday he would visit the US to meet Mr Biden, but would not be drawn on plans for a summit with Mr Biden and Mr Sunak.

“I look forward to the continuing engagement that I have with the US administration,” Mr Albanese told reporters before leaving for India.

Australia’s Ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos said last week that details of the submarine deal would be announced in mid-March.

San Diego is home to the US Pacific Fleet, and a source familiar with the planning told Reuters the trilateral summit could involve a visit to a submarine.

While the US and Britain have agreed to provide Australia with the technology to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, the three allies have yet to say exactly how the capability will be transferred to Australia, which does not have a nuclear-propulsion industry.

Aukus will be Australia’s biggest defence project

and offers the prospect of jobs in all three countries, but it remains unclear whether it will involve a US or a British-designed submarine, or a combination of both, or when the vessels will become operational.

Australian defence industry speculation has centred on Australia opting for a British design, while Mr Sinodinos said there would be a “genuine trilateral solution”.

Technology transfer curbs

Despite an 18-month consultation period since Aukus was first announced, questions remain over strict US curbs on technology sharing needed for the project.

These are a particular concern for its so-called pillar two dealing with advanced technology programmes such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

British and Australian officials said last week work was still needed to break down bureaucratic barriers to technology sharing in pillar two, and the top Pentagon official for Asia, Mr Ely Ratner, referred to “antiquated systems” governing US technology.

Mr Ratner said these needed to be revised “and we’re in the process of doing so”.

A State Department spokesman said Washington was “actively working to re-examine and streamline our processes to optimise our defence trade in the Aukus context”, and added: “We do not anticipate any challenges in implementing Aukus due to US export-control regulations.”

However, despite political will for reform in the Biden administration, experts question how easy it will be for Aukus to avoid the attentions of mid-level State Department bureaucrats duty bound to protect US defence technology.

Mr Ashley Townshend, an Australian defence expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank, said a new information-sharing agreement would be needed for the submarine programme’s implementation stage.

“I have no doubt that this will happen,” he said. “But unless the agreement covers every single technology and defence service that the submarine programme will involve, over the course of its lifetime, it won’t be immune to bureaucratic and regulatory constraints.”

Some experts believe the Aukus announcement could include plans to station US and British nuclear submarines in Australia to train Australian crews and fill a capability gap until the new Australia submarines are in service, which is not expected until about 2040. REUTERS