SYDNEY: Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was confident a deal for the US to sell nuclear powered submarines to Australia was on track, ahead of talks between defense and foreign ministers of the two countries on Friday.
\nTwenty-five US Republican lawmakers told President Joe Biden on Thursday the plan to sell three attack submarines to Australia under the so-called AUKUS partnership would \u201cunacceptably weaken\u201d the US fleet without a clear plan to replace them.
\nUS Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are in Queensland state for the annual AUSMIN dialogue, where progress on the nuclear-powered submarine deal, regional security and clean energy will be the focus.
\n\u201cI am very confident,\u201d Albanese told reporters on Friday, when asked about the Republican letter, which noted the AUKUS agreement was \u201cvitally important\u201d but shouldn\u2019t weaken the US fleet.
\nThe United States, Britain and Australia announced the three-way AUKUS defense agreement in 2021 under which Australia is to obtain nuclear submarine technology from the United States.
\nAlbanese said he had met Republicans and Democrats on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Lithuania this month and was struck by \u201ctheir unanimous support for AUKUS.\u201d
\nThe US is Australia\u2019s major security ally and announced with Britain in March that the United States would sell Australia three US Virginia class nuclear powered submarines in the early 2030s, before Britain and Australia produce a new submarine class \u2014 SSN-AUKUS \u2014 the following decade.
\nAustralian Defense Minister Richard Marles said in a Sky television interview that Australia, which has agreed to invest $3 billion in US submarine facilities, understood there was \u201cpressure on the American industrial base\u201d but AUKUS was \u201con track.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy this arrangement is going to be so advantageous for all three countries is because we will develop an industrial base in this country which will contribute to the net capability of Australia, the UK and the US,\u201d he added.
\nChina\u2019s security ambitions in the Indo-Pacific will also be under discussion by the security allies over two days of talks.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen troubling (Chinese) coercion from the East China Sea to the South China Sea to right here in the Southwest Pacific, and will continue to support our allies and partners as they defend themselves from bullying behavior,\u201d Austin said before meeting Marles on Friday.
\nAustralia is reshaping its defense force in response to China\u2019s military buildup, and plans to boost its long-range strike capability, domestic missile production, and interoperability with the US and other regional militaries.
\nAustin said deepening defense ties, including efforts to integrate Japan into joint force posture initiatives, would be discussed.
\n\u201cNow\u2019s the time to be working closely with friends, and Australia has no better friend than the United States of America,\u201d Marles said at the start of a meeting with his US counterpart.
\nAustralia hosts an annual rotation of US Marines in the northern city of Darwin. War games involving more than 30,000 troops from the US, Japan and 10 other countries are being held in Queensland this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY: Australia\u2019s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was confident a deal for the US to sell nuclear powered submarines to Australia was on track, ahead of talks between defense and foreign ministers of the two countries on Friday. Twenty-five US Republican lawmakers told President Joe Biden on Thursday the plan to sell three attack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-346031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n