PM touches down in US, defends subs deal
SCOTT Morrison has defended the nuclear-powered submarine deal with the US and Britain, as he touched down in New York ahead of his meeting with President Joe Biden and other world leaders.
The Prime Minister announced on Thursday at least eight submarines would be built at the Osborne shipyards in Adelaide, creating local jobs for generations.
Speaking only hours after arriving in the US on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said Australia couldn’t have been more transparent with the French about its plans without potentially derailing the highly sensitive plan to acquire the US and UK’s nuclear-powered submarine technology.
“We have made it very clear, I have made it very clear that a conventional submarine would no longer be meeting our strategic interests and what we needed those boats to do,” he said.
“That has been communicated very clearly months ago. To suggest that somehow this decision could have been taken without causing his disappointment, I think would be very naive.
“At the end of the day you have to do things that are in Australia's national interest and a security interest and that has to be paramount.”
France had earlier slammed Australia for breaking the 2016 agreement worth $90bn that would have seen France build the country 12 conventional submarines.
Instead, by joining AUKUS Australia will acquire at least eight nuclearpowered submarines, most likely from the US.
However, Mr Morrison said the French should have known Australia had “deep and grave” concerns around the submarines and Australia was prepared to pull out of a deal made in 2016.
The PM’s visit to the US follows the landmark agreement between the US, UK and Australia, announced last week, to share military technology and boost combined military strength in the AsiaPacific region, where China has become increasingly aggressive. Victor Gao, who was once communist leader Deng Xiaoping‘s translator, made a thinly veiled threat last week following the announcement saying it was a “gross violation of international law” that will have “profound consequences” for “brainless” Aussies.
“Armed with nuclear submarines, Australia itself will be a target for possible nuclear attacks in the future,” he said.
“You do not need to know whom it will be. The watershed moment will be if Australia will be armed with nuclear submarines to be locally produced in Australia.
“That will mean Australia will lose that privilege of not being targeted by nuclear weapons to other countries and that should be a wake up call for all Australians.
“Do you really want to be a target in a possible nuclear war or do you want to be free from nuclear menace?”
Mr Morrison will meet European leaders on his US trip despite pressure by the French government on its European neighbours to ignore Australia.
France has recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the US, furious at being excluded from the AUKUS discussions and losing a $90bn contract to supply Australia with submarines.
Australia will become just the seventh nation in the world to operate nuclearpowered submarines.