British Prime Minister Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Albanese will travel to Washington in mid-March to unveil Australia’s plan to build a nuclear-powered submarine to replace Australia’s aging Collins-Class (Collins-Class) submarine design with US President Joe Biden.
According to Bloomberg News, the United States, Britain and Australia are sharing classified military capabilities to allow Australia to build and deploy new nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific region. This project is part of the “Australia-UK Alliance”, a trilateral security alliance agreement initiated and signed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia in 2021, aimed at countering China’s growing military power in the Pacific region.
The Australian parliament’s schedule means Albanese can travel between March 10 and 19, while the British government’s March 15 budget statement suggested Sunak was unlikely to leave the country before then.
Sunak’s office said a visit to the United States was possible, but did not set a date and would not confirm the reason for the visit. Meanwhile, Albanese’s office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine project is taking longer than expected because U.S. restrictions on technology and information sharing also apply to other countries involved in the project, even though they are members of the intelligence-sharing “Five Eyes” alliance, the report said.
In Washington, there are growing concerns about restrictions on the US submarine industry and the ability to support Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Before Christmas last year, two influential members of Congress in the United States raised serious concerns about the Australia-UK alliance agreement, warning Biden that his plan to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines risked harming the US industrial base.
Last month, the U.S. Navy abruptly suspended submarine repairs at four shipyards on the west coast over possible earthquake concerns, deepening doubts about the U.S. ability to help fulfill the Australia-UK alliance agreement.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles confirmed this week that the announcement of an Australia-UK alliance was close and would be a “truly three-way” solution involving the US and the UK.
He told the ABC that the outside world will see the best way for Australia, Britain and the United States to finally announce their cooperation to complete this project.
In addition, the Australia-UK-US alliance project to build nuclear-powered submarines has also angered France, because France’s plan to build conventionally-powered submarines for Australia has been put on hold.
Australia’s foreign and defense ministers are visiting the UK this week and are scheduled to hold a press conference with their British counterparts in the southern seaside city of Portsmouth on Thursday.
Prime Minister Albanese plans to host the next “Quadruple Security Dialogue” summit in Sydney in June this year, when President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Modi will visit Australia.
source: voachinese
