Biden announces a nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia to take on China

President Joe Biden has agreed to sell three fast-attack nuclear submarines to Australia in a deal with the UK to combat the growing threat from China.

Biden announced the pact at the US Pacific Fleet headquarters in San Diego and in front of the 377-foot nuclear attack submarine USS Missouri.

The AUKUS deal is about ensuring that the “Indo-Pacific remains free and open,” the president said in a clear message to Beijing as he increases his military presence in Taiwan.

He then told British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: ‘America couldn’t think of two best friends to support.

“I am proud to be his shipmate,” he added.

The move marks one of Biden’s most aggressive steps toward China’s growing military, pairing with the Pentagon requesting its largest peacetime budget in history.

The United States will share nuclear technology with Australia to help them develop their own fleet that can take on Chinese submarines.

The announcement came as financial markets continued to spiral due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

“The United States has safeguarded stability in the Indo-Pacific for decades to the enormous benefit of nations across the region,” Biden said.

“We are demonstrating again how democracies can provide our own security and prosperity, and not just for ourselves but for the entire world,” he added.

In a joint statement, Biden, Albanese and Sunak endorsed plans for the so-called AUKUS project, first announced in 2021, angering French President Emmanuel Macron.

Under the deal, the United States intends to sell three US Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the early 2030s, with the option to buy two more if necessary, according to the joint statement. .

The leaders’ statement said the multi-stage project would culminate in British and Australian production and operation of a new class of submarine, SSN-AUKUS, a ‘trilaterally developed’ vessel based on Britain’s next-generation design to be would build in Britain. and Australia and include “state of the art” US technologies.

“The first UK submarines built to this design will be delivered in the late 2030s… with the first Australian submarines to follow in the early 2040s,” a British statement said.

The ships will be built by BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, he said.

The deal also provides for the deployment of US and UK submarines to Western Australia to help train Australian crews and bolster deterrence, the senior US official said. The joint statement said the US and Britain would start these rotating deployments from 2027 and a senior US official said this would increase to four US and one British submarines in a few years.

This first phase of the plan is already underway with the Virginia, a nuclear-powered cruise missile attack submarine, currently visiting Perth, Australia, officials said.

AUKUS will be the first time Washington has shared nuclear-powered technology since it did with Britain in the 1950s.

China has condemned AUKUS as an illegal act of nuclear proliferation. In launching the partnership, Australia also upset France by abruptly canceling a deal to buy French conventional submarines.

Briefing a small group of reporters on Friday, Sullivan dismissed China’s concerns and pointed to Beijing’s own military buildup, including nuclear-powered submarines.

“We have communicated with them about AUKUS and are seeking more information from them about their intentions,” he said.

Big question marks remain about the plan, particularly about strict US restrictions on the extensive technology sharing required for the project and how long it will take to deliver the submarines, even as the perceived threat posed by China grows.

In a reflection of the extended US production capacity, the senior US official told Reuters it was “very likely” that one or two of the Virginia-class submarines sold to Australia were ships that had been in service in the US, something that would require congressional approval.

Australia has agreed to contribute funds to boost US and UK submarine production and maintenance capacity, the official said.

He said Washington was seeking a ‘double-digit billion’ investment in its submarine industrial base on top of the $4.6 billion already committed for 2023-29 and that the Australian contribution would be less than 15 per cent of the total.

A senior US official said AUKUS reflected growing threats in the Indo-Pacific, not just from China to self-ruled Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea, but also from Russia, which has also held joint exercises with China and North Korea. . .