Uncertainty of AUKUS

Australia Broadcast Center

a day ago

Isabella Higgins: Uncertainty over Australia's multi-billion dollar nuclear submarines deal as the United States reviews the AUKUS security pact. The agreement was struck under former President Joe Biden. Now, officials say it's being reviewed to ensure it fits Donald Trump's agenda. North America correspondent Carrington Clarke is in Washington. He joined me a short time ago.
Carrington Clarke: Well, what we know is that the review is taking place. A senior defence official has framed this as ensuring that the security pact, which remember this was signed back in 2021 when Joe Biden was president of the United States, that the pact aligns with Donald Trump's so-called 'America First' agenda. What I thought was interesting is that they specified that some of the things they're looking at is to ensure that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defence and that the defence industrial base is meeting our needs. Now, there have been concerns raised that the agreement in place potentially puts at risk America's ability to have enough nuclear powered submarines of its own, that by Australia receiving some of those submarines, the earlier submarines are supposed to be effectively second-hand, but that that could leave America vulnerable for its own needs. And then there is this question about how much America expects its allies, including Australia, to be spending on defence. There's already been calls from the secretary of defence here, Mr Hegseth, that Australia should be upping its defence budget. So you do question whether perhaps part of this review will put more pressure on Australia to raise how much money we're spending, not necessarily just about the AUKUS agreement.
Isabella Higgins: And Carrington, I think the question for many people is where does this leave Australia?
Carrington Clarke: Well, I think this really raises doubts yet again about how vulnerable this AUKUS agreement makes Australia to the whims of the American administration. Effectively, this is by far and away our biggest expenditure on defence, but it's very reliant on accessing American technology. There have been sceptics, critics of this deal who've said that it effectively takes away some of Australia's autonomy when it comes to defence. We are so reliant on America agreeing and continuing to agree to supply this technology and to supply hardware. So this will obviously raise doubts. In saying that, experts also tell me that we shouldn't be too concerned about the idea of a review. Reviews are very normal. They are particularly normal for a new administration when looking at agreements that were signed by previous administrations. So this does not mean that Donald Trump is keen to ditch the AUKUS agreement. It may be that they look to change some of the details. But again, part of the reason there is concern is we haven't seen a full-throated endorsement of the AUKUS agreement since Donald Trump took back power. And although the defence secretary says that he is in favour of it, the fact that we haven't heard it from the President himself raises some concern.
Isabella Higgins: Carrington Clarke in Washington.
Jennifer Parker is a national security expert from the Australian National University.
She says the announcement of a review isn't entirely surprising
Jennifer Parker: As we're nearly four years into the deal, it's probably prudent that they're launching a review. I don't think we can read into it any comments at the moment in terms of whether they think it's going to change et cetera. And when you ask the question of is it fundamentally beneficial to the US, the answer is yes. And so I'm confident that any review would determine that it is in the US' interests to continue with AUKUS.
Isabella Higgins: ANU national security expert, Jennifer Parker.