Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed confidence on Friday of securing bipartisan political support in the United States for a deal to provide his country with submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology.
The so-called AUKUS partnership — an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — is being discussed by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in meetings with Albanese and other Australian officials in Brisbane on Friday and Saturday.
Under the deal, Australia will buy three Virginia-class submarines from the United States and build five of a new AUKUS-class submarine in cooperation with Britain.
Australian media have focused on a letter signed by more than 20 Republican lawmakers to President Joe Biden that warned the deal would “unacceptably weaken the U.S. fleet” without a plan to boost U.S. submarine production.
Albanese said he remained “very confident” that the United States would deliver the three submarines.
Albanese said he had been reassured by discussions he had with Republicans and Democrats at a NATO summit in Lithuanian this month.
“What struck me was their unanimous support for AUKUS, their unanimous support for the relationship between the Australia and United States. It has never been stronger,”said Albanese. Austin and Blinken arrived in Brisbane late Thursday ahead of annual bilateral meetings with their Australian counterparts, Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
