Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally met US President Donald Trump face-to-face, emerging with assurances that the AUKUS deal will proceed as planned.
Trump said the US actually had a lot of submarines,
“We have the best submarines in the world, and we’re building a few more currently under construction, and now we’re starting we have it all set with Anthony [Albanese],” the President said at the press conference before their meeting.
“We’ve worked on this long and hard, and we’re starting that process right now. I think it’s really moving along very rapidly, very well … we have them moving very quickly.”
Under the AUKUS deal, Australia will buy three used US Navy Virginia-class nuclear submarines (SSN), with the first handed over in the early 2030s.
The big issue was whether the US Navy had enough submarines to meet its own requirements and could spare boats for Australia.
Production of new SSNs sits around 1.2-1.3 boats per year, when it needs to be 2.3 boats per year to meet US and Australian needs.
That’s the subject of an ongoing review within the Pentagon, launched by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegserth.
Trump’s comments about Australia and Albanese were almost entirely positive. Australia had gone to the meeting seeking an explicit endorsement of AUKUS, with Trump’s comments suggesting that was mostly there.
However, US Navy Secretary John Phelan cited a need to clarify some ambiguity in the AUKUS agreement.
He described Australia as a very important ally and appeared to reference the Royal Australian Navy base and industrial facility at Henderson, Western Australia, describing it as “very important to our ability to project power with our allies.”
“I think what we’re really trying to do take this framework and improve it for all three parties, clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the prior agreement. So, it should be a win-win for everybody,” he said.
The big outcome from the meeting was multi-billion agreement for Australia to supply the US with critical minerals as a counter to China’s domination of the global trade in rear earth elements.
Mentioned briefly in the media conference were US calls for Australia to substantially increase defence spending which now sits at two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“I’d always like more, but they [Australia] have to do what they have to do. You can only do so much. I think they’ve been great,” Trump said.
“They’re building tremendous docking because they have a lot of ships and a lot of things happening. And I think their military has been very strong.”
In its fact sheet on the Albanese-Trump meeting, the US State Department noted that Since February, Australia has contributed US$1 billion to the US Government to expand and modernise the US submarine industrial base,
Another US$1 billion is due by end of year.
“Together, we are strengthening the Australia – United Kingdom – United States (AUKUS) trilateral security partnership to meet the challenges of tomorrow,” it said.
The positive outcome of the meeting appears to have substantially reassured Australian defence industry which had faced uncertainty over whether AUKUS would proceed.
The South Australia-based industry group the Defence Teaming Centre (DTC) said this was the strongest endorsement to date on the AUKUS initiative.
“AUKUS is a long-term project of significant proportion and will provide opportunities for decades,” said DTC Chief Executive Officer Libby Day.
“It was tremendously reassuring for our member businesses to gain insight into what the future can hold and we now have a responsibility to respond to Donald Trump’s endorsement of AUKUS by renewing our commitment to it and expediting our ability to deliver on our obligations as they pertain to AUKUS.”