US and UK to help Australia obtain nuclear submarines in landmark partnership

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The UK, the US, and Australia on Wednesday announced a landmark “partnership” agreement, under which the two nuclear nations will help non-nuclear Australia to obtain a multibillion-dollar fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, Sky News Australia reports. The collaboration on the project is the most significant to have taken place between the three countries in decades.

In a joint statement, the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden, and Australian PM Scott Morrison said the deal “will help sustain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.” The leaders said their collaboration on nuclear technology will be in compliance with all nuclear-related treaties.

Although China is not mentioned in the agreement, the authoritarian Chinese government is increasingly seen as a rising threat to democratic countries: the West has been working to upgrade its capacities on various levels, including cyber, quantum technologies, and artificial intelligence as well as other underwater capabilities, in order to meet that threat, Sky News reports.

The submarines in question will be nuclear-powered, but will not carry nuclear arms, Sky News said. Nuclear-powered submarines are coveted because they are quieter and can stay underwater for longer than their conventional diesel-powered ones.

As expected, China views the partnership as an aggression, Sky News said. Responding to the announcement, China’s embassy in Washington said the three countries have to “shake off their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice.”

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