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“It's time to deliver. And when we talk about delivery, we talk about the most powerful, most feared attack submarine the world has ever seen. The apex predator of the seas.”
That's the United Kingdom's defence minister John Healey, speaking at a ministerial meeting at the Pentagon in the United States.
In attendance, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles and United States Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
The meeting's agenda - the AUKUS defence pact.
The plan which was announced in 2023 under the previous Biden administration, proposes the U-S selling several nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine using U-S technology.
Mr Hegseth has celebrated the display of what he calls "hard power" that the deal between the three nations creates.
“A continued commitment to a pragmatic, practical application of hard power between our countries that reflect peace through strength and also hard power, real capabilities that demonstrate a deterrent effect that we all want. We may lead our departments of war, ministers of defence, but our goal is peace. On behalf of the American people, the Australian people and the UK. And we pursue that together on behalf of our leadership.”
AUKUS was formed in 2021 to deepen co-operation on security and defence, with a focus on helping Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and developing advanced military technologies.
The US recently concluded a review of the AUKUS agreement aimed at ensuring its long-term success and alignment with the president's 'America First' agenda.
Wednesday's meeting between the three ministers marked a decisive shift towards delivery for submarine development.
Mr Marles says he's excited for the three defence leaders to work on the next steps for the delivery of the AUKUS goals.
“This is a massive project, and there is so much more to do. And it's really important that we are looking at the ways in which we can now get on with this and deliver it. And I think delivery is very much the focus of the conversation that we will be having today. I'm very excited about what we can do together, the progress that we're making, and the challenges that we both need or all of us need to grab hold of.”
The AUKUS pact is worth $368 billion dollars.
The UK says it is "all in" on overcoming barriers to fully implementing the partnership.
“Pete, I say to you, Richard, I say to you, the UK is all in on AUKUS. And as our three nations, which share a long friendship, work together on AUKUS, we extend that friendship long into the future. The generations ahead of us will share its strength. They will inherit its security and in the jobs that we create, in the technologies that we develop, and in the peace that we preserve.”
Anti-nuclear campaigners are raising concerns that Australia could play host to nuclear weapons carried on military assets from the United States as part of the AUKUS agreement.
Last week, senior Defence Department officials told Senate estimates Australia would not ask the US to declare the presence of nuclear weapons when using Australian bases.
Dave Sweeney is the co-founder of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel peace prize seven years ago.
The group campaigns in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which Mr Sweeney says the government should sign.
“That would still allow nuclear powered vessels, it would not allow nuclear armed ones. That's what we've been told, as the Australian people, AUKUS is about, and the government must sign because we are seeing what seems a very dangerous arc and erosion towards a normalisation of weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction.”
A government spokesperson tells SBS that the US does not station nuclear weapons in Australia, which would be a violation of the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty.
However, they say the government respects the US policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons on visiting aircraft and vessels.
Australia's Submarine Agency says Australia will begin building its first SSN-AUKUS submarine which will incorporate US technology by the end of this decade.
