Britain, Australia to deepen AUKUS commitment, economic ties

SYDNEY: Britain’s commitment to Australia was “absolute”, Defence Secretary John Healey said on Friday as the two countries’ defence and foreign ministers held talks in Sydney on boosting cooperation, including deepening their commitment to the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership.

Healey and Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy were met by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney, ahead of talks focussed on boosting trade ties and progressing the AUKUS partnership for Britain and Australia to build a new class of nuclear-powered submarine.

The United States is reviewing the trilateral agreement struck in 2021, and has pressed Australia to increase defence spending to counter China’s military build-up in the Indo Pacific region.

Healey said on Friday that AUKUS is one of Britain’s most important defence partnerships, and a treaty to be signed with Australia confirms Britain’s commitment for the next half century.

The new British-Australian treaty will underpin each country’s submarine programmes for 50 years, creating tens of thousands of jobs, and is expected to be worth up to 20 billion pounds ($27 billion) to Britain in exports over the next 25 years, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.

In opening remarks, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the two countries were working to shape collective security in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Our UK commitment to Australia is absolute,” Healey told the meeting. The two militaries were deepening ties amid increasing uncertainty and threats, he said.

“This demands a new era of defence, an era in which indivisibility of security in the Indo-Pacifc alongside the security of the Euro-Atlantic, in which the deep relationships like ours with you must be reconfirmed,” he added.

Following the Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN), ministers are scheduled to travel to Melbourne and the northern garrison city of Darwin, where the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has arrived for the Talisman Sabre war games.

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As many as 40,000 troops from 19 countries are taking part in the Talisman Sabre exercises held from July 13 to August 4, which Australia’s military has said are a rehearsal of joint war fighting that contribute to stability in the Indo-Pacific.

Britain has significantly increased its participation in the exercise co-hosted by Australia and the United States, with 3,000 troops taking part.