AUKUS is a disaster for Australia. Trump has given us an out – let's take it
The Australian national security establishment's worst nightmare has arrived. The Trump administration is putting AUKUS to a review. A review many fear will put the $368 billion submarine deal to the sword.
Led by Elbridge Colby, defence undersecretary and noted AUKUS sceptic, the Pentagon's review will assess whether the deal meets the president's 'America First' agenda.
It was always very unlikely that any presidential administration would be willing to hand over some of the crown jewels of the US Navy's fleet to Australia, which is what the first part of the deal involved – the United States giving Australia control of some Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines. We don't know much about the details of the deal, but we do know that the US always had a get out clause there. It's up to the president to decide whether to hand them over, and really, why would they?
Now, it's possible the Trump administration will tank the whole thing. And we can safely assume that won't mean handing back the $800 million Australia has already invested, no strings attached, in the US shipbuilding industry in the vain hope that would accelerate production rates.
AUKUS was always a disastrous deal for Australia. We were never likely to get any submarines, and all the deal does is tie us ever closer to an increasingly volatile and aggressive America. AUKUS would not have made Australia safer. It would have made us more vulnerable and compromised our ability to make independent decisions about our own security.
Trump has given us an opportunity to get out. We should take it.
Australians already knew that Trump is not to be trusted. Polling by The Australia Institute done back in March found that more Australians considered the US president a bigger threat to global peace than the leaders of the world's two most powerful authoritarian states in Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
Almost half (49 per cent) said they felt less secure since the election of Trump.
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