Down Under nuclear subs deal in new strategic pact

AUKUS aimed at China threat

AUSTRALIA will build nuclear-powered submarines as part of the most significant deal ever signed with the US and UK, aimed squarely at countering China’s expanding military-based coercion through the Pacific region.

For 18 months, a small, hand-picked team of Defence officials including ADF chief General Angus Campbell have been meeting quietly with US and UK counterparts to create AUKUS, branded the “next generation” trilateral pact.

The result was a stunning deal announced on Thursday morning by US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, flagged as the most significant signing since World War II.

As part of the pact, the US will share its nuclear technology – one of the US military’s most sought after and guarded secrets – with Australia to build eight nuclear-powered submarines, to be constructed mostly in South Australia and Western Australia but with electronic and specialist components from other states.

The shift means that with “immediate effect”, Australia will dump the 2016 $80bn deal it signed with France to build a conventional submarine fleet.

The French are reportedly furious but in talks with President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Morrison made clear the “strategic outlook” had changed, which made the French subs redundant to Australian needs.

The French Barracuda attack-class subs program has bee plagued by delays and challenges which have incurred significant costs. France is considering compensation for tearing up the deal.

The AUKUS pact will open the door to Australia acquiring hardware including Tomahawk cruise missiles, longrange anti-ship missiles and precision strike and defence technology for land forces.

That changed strategic outlook is a result of the assertive and unrelenting military push by China into the Indo Pacific region, not just with the building of military island fortresses in the South China Sea but coercive threats against Taiwan and Japan, intimidation of the Philippines and Vietnam, and the debt-trap diplomacy push with Pacific island nations.

New Zealand was left out of AUKUS largely because of its antinuclear stance and its soft posturing with China even after it introduced trade blocks and tariffs against more than a dozen Australian exports from wine to wheat, meat to coal.

AUKUS will not extend to nuclear weapons nor will it require any civil nuclear infrastructure; Australia’s nonnuclear international proliferation treaty will not need to be altered. “We’re opening a new chapter in our friendship, and the first task of this partnership,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Biden thanked that “fellow Down Under”, seemingly momentarily forgetting Mr Morrison’s name.

“We’re taking another historic step to deepen and formalise co-operation among all three of our nations, because we all recognise the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long-term,” he said.

It will take 18 months to work out how the tech will be shared, with the first Australian nuclear-powered submarine expected to be in the water by the end of the decade.

It is understood Mr Morrison has begun a round of regional conversations with leaders about what the pact means for them, notably with NZ and Indonesia.

China has consistently declined to receive his calls.