WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – The Pentagon has completed its review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership and found areas to put the deal on the “strongest possible footing,” a U.S. official said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump’s administration said in June it had launched a formal review into the AUKUS defence deal – worth hundreds of billions of dollars – that will allow Australia to acquire U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, and also involves Britain.
“Consistent with President Trump’s guidance that AUKUS should move ‘full steam ahead,’ the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said Australia had received the United States’ review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership and is “working through it”.
It had sparked alarm in Canberra, but concerns were eased when Trump signaled his support for the program in a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House in October.
The review was led by the Pentagon’s Under Secretary Elbridge Colby, who said last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and U.S. industry could not produce enough to meet American demand.
AUKUS is Australia’s biggest-ever defense project, with Canberra committing to spend A$368 billion ($240 billion) over three decades to the program, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the U.S. submarine production base.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Toby Chopra and Chizu Nomiyama )
Comments