As the government of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is considering leasing nuclear-powered submarines from the UK or the US, a senior minister sought to reassue the public that nuclear weapons would not be based in Australia under the AUKUS defense alliance.
Australian Minister of Finance Simon Birmingham and Minister of Defence Peter Dutton confirmed in separate interviews yesterday that leasing submarines from the AUKUS allies could be a stop-gap solution until Australia takes delivery of its own — potentially in the 2040s.
“The short answer is yes,” Dutton said when asked about leasing vessels.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Birmingham said that leasing arrangements would not necessarily “increase the number of submarines and the capability across all of the partner nations,” but would help with training and information sharing.
“Doing so may provide opportunities for us to train our sailors, provide the skills and knowledge in terms of how we operate,” he said.
“[It would help] provide the platforms for us to upgrade the infrastructure in Perth that will be necessary for the operation of these submarines. I expect we will see … lease arrangements or greater joint operations between our navies in the future that sees our sailors working more closely and indeed, potentially on UK and US vessels, to get that skills and training and knowledge.”
Birmingham said there was no “quid pro quo” in Australia agreeing to step up its strategic relationship with the UK and the US.
He insisted that nuclear weapons would not be based within Australia’s jurisdiction. “We’ve been clear, Australia’s position in relation to nuclear weapons does not change, will not change,” he said yesterday.
“We will meet all of our non-proliferation treaty arrangements and obligations and not be changing any of our policies in relation to the nuclear weapons technology.”
Birmingham did not rule out an increase in the number of UK and US military personnel on Australian shores. “We already have US troops and marines who work in Australia on rotational deployments at times,” he said.
“We already do close integrated operations alongside our US partner as we do with a number of other countries, and we always look to explore where they can be enhanced, and it is in Australia’s national interest to do so.”
Birmingham said that Australia had informed the French government “at the earliest available opportunity” of the plan to scrap a submarine deal with the French, which prompted Paris to recall its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington.
Birmingham said the French were told the US$90 billion submarine deal was off “before it became public.” France said it was kept in the dark.
Birmingham said changes, not just in technology but also the region, had made a new deal necessary.
“Prior to that, we have been engaging with the French in terms of the changes that we’ve been observing in our region,” he said.
“The changes to the strategic nature of competition in the region. The changes to the challenges of the operational capabilities of conventionally powered submarines and the reasons we’ve been looking at the nuclear-powered submarine alternative are because of those different changes,” he said.
“This has been very sensitive to get to this point in time. We don’t underestimate the importance now of working with the French in the future around their engagement across the region and ensuring that we re-establish those strong ties with the French government and counterparts long into the future. Because their ongoing engagement in this region is important, alongside these decisions that we’ve made,” Birmingham said.
However, it is not just the French who have been made uneasy by the AUKUS arrangement, which is still to be worked out in detail. Australia’s allies in the Indo-Pacific have also raised concerns over what the deal will mean for tensions in the region.
Malaysia said on Saturday that Canberra’s decision to build atomic-powered submarines could trigger a regional nuclear arms race, echoing concerns already raised by Beijing.
“It will provoke other powers to also act more aggressively in the region, especially in the South China Sea,” the Malaysian prime minister’s office said, without mentioning China.
Beijing’s foreign policy in the region has become increasingly assertive, particularly its maritime claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, some of which conflict with Malaysia’s own claims.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS