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Britain on Thursday (July 25) announced that it has inked a historic 50-year treaty with Australia to deepen their AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine alliance, a move that is to give British defence exports a significant boost and generate thousands of jobs.
The treaty bolsters the trilateral AUKUS security agreement between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, which was originally inked in 2021 to equip Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines. The alliance is intended to boost deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region as concerns over China’s increasing assertiveness in the region grow.
Despite uncertainty that has been building since US President Donald Trump launched a formal review last month, examining whether the pact is consistent with his “America First” policy, Australia remains confident that the deal will go ahead as scheduled.
The new UK-Australia treaty will be the basis of each country’s submarine program, as confirmed by Britain’s Ministry of Defence. The agreement is projected to create up to £20 billion (about $27.1 billion) worth of British exports within the next 25 years. It also serves Britain’s more general defence and economic aspirations, with over 21,000 individuals set to be working in the UK under the AUKUS program at its height.
It comes before a high-level ministerial visit as British Defence Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary David Lammy travel to Australia for meetings with their Australian counterparts and to witness joint military exercises in Darwin—the location of Australia’s biggest-ever defence exercises.
“AUKUS is one of Britain’s most significant defence partnerships, bolstering international security while propelling growth domestically,” said Healey. “This historic agreement seals our AUKUS commitment for the next five decades.”
The deepening of UK-Australia defence relations portends a continued strategic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, solidifying the long-term extent and economic effect of the AUKUS alliance.
