UK Says Australia Buying Anglo-American Nuclear Submarines Will Reassure Pacific Neighbours

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia´s shift to nuclear-powered submarines will assure its South Pacific neighbors of its commitment to regional security, Britain’s Minister of State for the Indo-Pacific said Monday.

Australia will announce in March what type of submarine powered with U.S. nuclear technology it wants to build under a deal with the United States and Britain revealed in September last year.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she expects the three nations to work closely together to deliver a fleet of eight submarines.

“It´s going to be a really exciting project and really importantly will assure, I think, not only for Australia, but for the Indo-Pacific region, for those Pacific islands that assurance that Australia´s commitment to their security is unassailable,” Trevelyan told the National Press Club.

The previous Australian government infuriated French President Emmanuel Macron by canceling a contract for a French-built fleet of 12 conventionally-powered submarines worth 90 billion Australian dollars ($66 billion). It opted instead for nuclear-powered versions.

This month, Macron described Australia going nuclear as a “confrontation with China.”

Trevelyan said she disagreed with Macron’s stance that Australia should have stayed with the French contract.

“The Pacific is a big place. Having nuclear-powered submarines means you can go further for longer, it´s a practical question,” Trevelyan said.

“The French navy has nuclear-powered submarines. What they were proposing to build for (Australia), diesel submarines, is not what the French use,” she added.

Australia´s government, elected in May after nine years in opposition, has been trying to build closer relations with its neighbors in a region where China is exerting more influence.

The government has accused the previous leadership of Australia´s worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since World War II with China’s signing of a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April.

That accord has raised fears that a Chinese naval base might be established in the South Pacific.