Red tape hampers AUKUS advance

A top Australian official has blasted the US administration’s “permafrost layer of middle management” for delaying the AUKUS plan to share advanced technologies.

Ninh Duong, the minister-counsellor for defence, science and technology at Australia’s US embassy, said dealing with the US system of defence export controls felt like “death by a thousand cuts”.

His criticisms were echoed on Thursday by US congressional leaders in an inquiry into the administration’s plans to overhaul the regulations so Australia, the UK and the US could share technology.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul said: “The longer outdated and costly regulations stand in the way of successful implementation, the more it plays into the Chinese Communist Party’s hands.”

But senior State Department and the Defence Department leaders said they were tackling the problem with a three-phase plan to match what they called the “generational opportunity” presented by AUKUS.

State Department assistant secretary Jessica Lewis said bureaucrats were developing a mechanism to fast-track technology-sharing, while also drafting legislative changes and seeking commitments from Australia and the UK to ensure sensitive US capabilities would be kept safe.

Defence Department assistant secretary Mara Karlin said: “This is a historic opportunity so it does require historic change.”

Mr McCaul flagged the need for a legislative fix “as soon as possible”.

The US Studies Centre also recently published its recommendations for “breaking the barriers” of US export controls, with report authors Bill Greenwalt and Tom Corben pushing for President Joe Biden to lead the way with an executive order.