Australia’s top defense official on Friday pushed back against criticism that the planned acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines would leave the country beholden to the U.S.
The comments came amid revelations that the U.S., U.K. and Australia had inked an updated AUKUS agreement that allows Australia to formally receive nuclear reactors, material and equipment while meeting “the highest” nonproliferation standards. It was signed earlier this week, Defense Minister Richard Marles said on Friday, and details were included in a letter U.S. President Joe Biden sent to Congress.
The letter said the terms of the original deal allowed for the “exchange of naval nuclear propulsion information” as the countries consulted on the plans. Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. announced the AUKUS agreement in 2021 as part of efforts to counter the rise of a more assertive China. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has heralded the plans as delivering Australia a “superior defense capability” while building up its own industrial base.
Speaking to Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, Marles, who also serves as deputy prime minister for the Labor government, said the update was a “treaty-level agreement” that provided legal underpinning for the plans.
He also responded to criticism from former Prime Minister Paul Keating, a vocal opponent of the deal, who led the country from 1991 to 1996. Keating, in an interview with the ABC, said AUKUS was about U.S “military control of Australia” and was likely to “turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States.” He also criticized the increasing U.S. military presence in Australia.
“What’s wrong is we completely lose our strategic autonomy, the right of Australian governments and the Australian people to determine where and how they respond in the world if we let the United States and its military displace our military and our foreign policy prerogatives,” he said.
Marles said Keating’s comments were “not a fair characterization” of the AUKUS plan.
“What we are seeking to do is to ensure that we are contributing to the collective security of the region in which we live,” he said. “That’s how we best achieve our own security.”
Marles also dismissed suggestions that the agreement would lead to nuclear waste being brought to Australia.
“There is no prospect of any nuclear waste coming to Australia from the U.S. or the U.K.,” he said, adding, “We will be handling our own nuclear waste, which is what we announced in March of last year.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese downplayed Keating’s comments.
“Paul has his views, they’re well known. My job as prime minister is to do what Australia needs in 2024. The world is different, the world has changed between 1996 and 2024,” Albanese said.
Under “pillar one” of the AUKUS arrangement Australia plans to buy at least three Virginia-class submarines from the U.S. in the 2030s as it builds its own using U.K. and U.S. technology. Canberra has set the goal of having eight nuclear-powered subs in service by the 2050s.
The plans have sparked questions about feasibility, given the delays faced by U.S. and U.K. submarine programs and political uncertainty in the U.S. ahead of November’s presidential election.
Marles told Sky News that AUKUS has proven to have bipartisan support in Washington.
“We are really confident about whatever the future will hold in terms of whoever is elected in November of this year in the United States,” he said.
