A further rapprochement between Washington, London and Canberra. Australia announced on Monday, August 12, that it had signed an agreement authorizing the exchange of information and equipment in the field of naval nuclear propulsion with the United States and the United Kingdom. “This agreement constitutes an important step towards the acquisition by Australia of conventional nuclear-powered submarines,” declared the Australian Minister of Defense Richard Marles.
This agreement was concluded within the framework of the Aukus pact signed in September 2021 with Washington and London, which plans to equip Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines from 2040 with the aim of countering China’s influence in the South Pacific. Specifically, Australia plans to buy at least three Virginia-class submarines from the United States during the 2030s. Before building with the United Kingdom in the 2040s a new class of nuclear-powered submarines, called SSN-Au.
“A vital link in Australia’s naval capability”
Australia’s future fleet of nuclear-powered submarines will meet “the highest standards of non-proliferation,” Marles said, adding that Australia was not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. “Submarines are a vital part of Australia’s naval capability, providing a strategic advantage in terms of surveillance and protection of our maritime approaches,” the agreement said.
Nuclear-powered submarines offer greater stealth and, above all, much greater autonomy than conventional submarines. Australia currently has a fleet of ageing diesel-electric submarines, weighed down by design flaws.
China, for its part, has of course strongly denounced the Aukus security pact, considering that the delivery of nuclear-powered submarines to Canberra is a violation of nuclear non-proliferation rules and a threat to its security.
Making Australia “the 51st American state”?
But in Australia too, this new stage passed in the Aukus pact has also attracted criticism. Australian Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge said he had “never seen such an irresponsible unilateral international agreement signed by an Australian government”, saying that “every aspect of this agreement is a blow to Australian sovereignty”.
Former Labor Prime Minister (1991-1996) Paul Keating also denounced a deal that would make Australia “the 51st American state”, questioning the country’s rapprochement with an “aggressive ally like the United States”.
But the former Australian Labor leader also caused controversy last week, saying that “Taiwan is not a vital interest of Australia” and that concerns about China’s designs on Taiwan were unfounded because the island was “Chinese real estate”. Comments that the current Labor government of Anthony Albanese has distanced itself from, but which reflect the differences in the country over its strategy in the Pacific in the face of Chinese expansion.
The Australian government also wanted to calm certain concerns on Monday, stating that it had been signed in this new treaty that the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia could leave the agreement with only one year’s notice. Thus tempering the idea of an irreversible commitment alongside the Americans, whatever the context in the Pacific.
Another point of tension in Australia: the question of nuclear waste linked to the manufacture of these submarines. From the British newspaper The GuardianAustralian sources insisted that the deal did not involve Australia taking charge of highly radioactive waste, enriching uranium or processing spent nuclear fuel.