The Pentagon said Thursday it has endorsed the tripartite AUKUS security pact with the United Kingdom and Australia, which would involve Canberra’s acquisition of at least three Virginia-class nuclear submarines within 15 years.
The administration of US President Donald Trump said earlier this year it was reviewing a 2021 deal for the nuclear-powered attack subs signed under his presidential predecessor Joe Biden.
The Department of Defense completed its five-month review, which endorsed the AUKUS agreement and determined it is "in alignment with President Trump’s
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America First agenda," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
"Consistent with President Trump’s guidance that AUKUS should move ’full steam ahead,’ the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing."
Congressman Joe Courtney, the top Democrat on a US House subcommittee on sea power, said the review’s completion assures that the pact’s "framework is aligned with our country’s national security interest."
"With its completion, it is important to note that the 2021 AUKUS agreement has now survived three changes of government in all three nations and still stands strong."
Courtney is a vocal champion of AUKUS in Congress, and represents a Connecticut district that is home to the primary submarine manufacturing facility in the United States.
The AUKUS pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge submarines from the United States and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies.
The submarines, the sale of which will begin in 2032, lie at the heart of Australia’s strategy of improving its long-range strike capabilities in the Pacific, particularly against China.
The deal could cost Canberra up to US$235 billion over the next 30 years, and also includes the technology to build its own vessels in the future.
Australia’s defense industry minister, Pat Conroy, said yesterday he was pleased the US review had confirmed that AUKUS was "full steam ahead."
"We’ll engage constructively with its findings and its recommendations on how to improve AUKUS even further."
Conroy said it was up to Washington to decide whether to release the document publicly.
"We’re working through the review right now, and we’ve said publicly over the last two years where we can improve delivery, improve performance of AUKUS, we will do that."
Australia had a major bust-up with France in 2021 when it canceled a multi-billion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from Paris and go with the AUKUS program instead.
In related news, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles will travel to Japan today to meet his counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi, and discuss deepening defence ties, his office said yesterday.
Australia wanted to engage early with the new government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Australian officials said, noting the two countries had a "shared vision for our region" and were working to respond to increasingly complex global challenges.
"Our relationship with Japan continues to grow from strength to strength – underpinned by close strategic alignment, mutual ambition and enormous potential," Marles said in a statement ahead of the two-day visit.
Japan and China are in their worst diplomatic crisis in years, after Takaichi said last month in parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically governed Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
Australia awarded a A$10 billion (US$6.5 billion) contract to Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in August to build warships for Australia, marking Tokyo’s most consequential defence sale since ending a military export ban in 2014 as it steps away from postwar pacifism.
Marles is scheduled to visit the company’s shipyard in Nagasaki, southern Japan, Koizumi said.
Australia plans to deploy the Mogami-class frigates to defend critical maritime trade routes and its northern approaches in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where China’s military footprint is expanding.
"At this meeting, we plan to share the understanding of the regional situation between the two countries and hold concrete discussions for further progress in Japan-Australia defence cooperation," Koizumi told a regularly scheduled press conference.
Marles is expected to travel next week to Washington, to meet with the US and British defence ministers and discuss the AUKUS nuclear powered submarine partnership.
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