Defence Minister Richard Marles has refused to speculate about President Donald Trump’s snubbing of the Prime Minister and instead insisted the multi-billion-dollar AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between the US, the UK and Australia was safe.
It came after Trump on Tuesday indicated AUKUS was “proceeding” following speculation he was considering “backing away” from the Biden-era nuclear submarine deal with Australia and the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was preparing to speak face -to-face with the US President for the first time at the G7 in Canada, but learned Trump decided to leave the G7 early to shift focus to the Middle East.
Asked about the President’s snub of Mr Albanese, as well as whether the Prime Minister had “avoided having to justify” AUKUS to the President, Mr Marles refused to speculate about the Labor leader’s missed opportunity.
“There’s a lot in that question,” the Defence Minister said.
“The AUKUS arrangement is something that is supported by the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. It’s very much in the strategic interests of all of our three countries.”
Mr Marles said the United States “well and truly understand” the upsides to the AUKUS deal, which was “underpinned” by the trilateral treaty which existed between the partner countries.
The Deputy Prime Minister said there was about 120 Australian tradespeople working on getting US Virginia class submarines “into the water” in Pearl Harbour, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
The Defence Minister said Australia “welcomed” the US’s review of AUKUS and that it was a “very natural step to take” which the UK Labour government had also undertaken.
“We get all of that, but AUKUS works in the strategic interests of all of our three countries, and we are all working on it at a pace,” he said.
Asked about Defence spending, Mr Marles was asked whether he expected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be asked by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to up spending after the British leader increased his country’s military budget by cutting foreign aid.
Mr Marles said there was “a lot” of talking around Defence spending and added Australia had engaged in the biggest peacetime increase to its military budget in its history.
“The Prime Minister is right in saying that what we need to be doing is focusing on our national interests,” he said.
“We work very closely with the United Kingdom in terms of pursuing what we are both doing and AUKUS is a critical part of this.”
