Australia To Join US, UK In Major Defense Tech-Sharing Pact “To Counter China”

President Joe Biden is expected Thursday to deliver remarks on a major new “national security initiative” which ultimately appears aimed at countering China. Citing sources in the White House, Politico is reporting the US alongside allies Australian and Britain will unveil a landmark new security pact for sharing advanced defense technologies.

In particular, nuclear submarine technology is expected to top the list for the tech sharing initiative. As Politico writes, “The trio, which will be known by the acronym AUUKUS, will make it easier for the three countries to share information and know-how in key technological areas like artificial intelligence, cyber, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities.”

It’s being further suggested that the pact is likely to result in Australia abandoning a $90 billion submarine deal with France – which was already for years fraught with tensions over soaring costs and production delays. 

According to The Sydney Morning Herald the anticipated “AUUKUS pact” was the likely subject of federal ministers being called to an urgent “top secret” meeting in Australia’s capital: 

In Australia, federal cabinet ministers were called to a top-secret meeting in Canberra on Wednesday ahead of the announcement. Some members of cabinet were granted border exemptions to urgently fly to Canberra for the hastily arranged meeting, sources familiar with the development said.

The White House announcement of the US-UK-Australia pact is expected for Thursday afternoon, at a moment Aussie Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton are in Washington D.C. for annual Australia-US Ministerial Consultations. Likely they will be at the White House with Biden for the statement. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to simultaneously make his own statement addressing the Australian public on the new agreement.

Though there’s likely to be no explicit mention of China, it’s clear Washington is continuing to deepen its support to Indo-Pacific allies with an aim to curtail China’s influence, and interestingly at comes as Australia is locked in its own trade war with China, with Beijing over the past couple years curbing Australian beef imports and levying huge punitive tariffs on barley, wine, and other commodities. 

“There’s nothing explicitly mentioning China in the three-way deal, the people said, but both noted that the subtext of the announcement is that this is another move by Western allies to push back on China’s rise in the military and technology arenas,” Politico underscored in its report.