UK and Australia set to elevate defence relationship

ABC NEWS (Australia)

UK foreign secretary David Cameron and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps are expected to make a major announcement about the joint AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project, and sign a  significant "status of forces" agreement.

Transcript

00:00 Now, there's already a lot of cooperation between the UK and Australia on military matters,

00:07 but what this agreement will do, well, it'll just make it easier, for example, for British

00:11 military personnel to come to Australia.

00:13 It puts a framework in place for that and for Australian forces going to the UK if necessary,

00:19 as well as making it easier for the two militaries to do things like share fuel supplies and

00:24 the like down the track.

00:26 So this is all about making it easier for both sides to boost what's called intraoperability.

00:34 And there's also a bit of symbolism at play, the UK signalling that it wants to be a major

00:38 player in the Indo-Pacific and that it sees Australia as a major partner in that endeavour.

00:43 What are we likely to see around Australia's plans for a nuclear submarine?

00:47 Well, of course, the focus is typically on the United States.

00:52 Understandably, when it comes to the AUKUS pact and Australia's plan to develop a nuclear-powered

00:57 submarine of its own.

00:59 But of course, the UK is also a member of AUKUS and is an indispensable part of this

01:04 attempt to try and get Australia a nuclear-powered submarine capability.

01:10 Now we're expecting over coming days, all four ministers, that is Richard Miles and

01:14 Penny Wong and their British counterparts to go to Adelaide, as well as their talks

01:19 today in Canberra.

01:20 And we're expecting a major announcement in the AUKUS space.

01:23 The broad expectation is that BAE, the British company, which has already got a substantial

01:29 presence in Adelaide, it's building frigates there, that it will be announced as a major

01:35 player in the effort to build those second generation AUKUS submarines in Adelaide.

01:42 The theory or the hope is that they'll be in the water from the 2040s.

01:46 So that's a pretty substantive moment or a pretty important moment in AUKUS.

01:50 But of course, there are still huge formidable and formidable technical, political and other

01:57 hurdles that all three countries face in this enormously ambitious endeavour to try and

02:02 develop nuclear-powered submarines.

02:04 So it is a substantial announcement taking Australia further down that track.

02:08 But there is an awful long way still to travel.

02:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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