UK-hosts first AUKUS Defence Ministers' meeting
Above: Defence Secretary John Healey with his US and Australian Counterparts.
Courtesy MoD
The meeting is the first trilateral Defence Ministers AUKUS meeting to be held outside of the United States. UK Defence Minister John Healey welcomed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin III and Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles to discuss the importance of the AUKUS partnership.
It comes as the UK and Australia have agreed plans to commence negotiations on a bilateral AUKUS treaty between the UK and Australia. The treaty will establish the strategic and operational framework for bilateral cooperation under AUKUS with a focus on the core elements of the delivery of SSN-AUKUS.
Given the importance of accelerating the design, build and delivery of SSN-AUKUS, Australia and the UK agreed these negotiations should occur at pace and with high priority.
This first-of-its-kind treaty between the two countries could create a major UK trade boost - it is estimated that facilitating the SSN-AUKUS build in Australia will see billions of pounds of submarine components exported from the UK through our defence industry supply chains. The treaty will lay out the nations’ relationship on submarine cooperation, as work progresses on future conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered attack submarines for the UK and Australia.
The three-year anniversary of the landmark AUKUS partnership was marked this month, following shortly after a historic breakthrough in defence trade was reached between the UK, US, and Australia.
The significant reduction in red tape will cover up to £500 million of UK defence exports each year, and billions of dollars of trade across all three nations, helping boost UK economic growth.
In a further boost for the UK economy, it is estimated at its peak the future AUKUS attack submarine programme will have more than 21,000 people working on it at UK sites, with the work generating an additional 7,000 skilled roles.
UK Defence Secretary, John Healey said: "I’m proud to be the first UK Defence Secretary to host a meeting of AUKUS Defence Ministers in Britain.
"As AUKUS partners, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an increasingly unstable world. This is a partnership that will boost jobs, growth and prosperity across our three nations, as well as strengthening our collective security."
The treaty work comes off the back of a UK-Australia Defence and Security Cooperation Agreement being signed earlier this year, helping make it easier for our Armed Forces to operate together in each other’s countries and facilitate UK submarine crews visiting Australia as part of the AUKUS partnership.
Since the AUKUS launch, nearly £10 billion of investment has been allocated towards UK nuclear work and infrastructure:
- £4 billion to progress SSN-AUKUS UK submarines through design, prototyping and initial purchases.
- £3 billion for new advanced manufacturing capabilities in Barrow-in-Furness and Derby.
- £2.4 billion over ten years from Australia to boost Rolls-Royce infrastructure and to share costs on SSN-AUKUS submarine design.
Through AUKUS Pillar 2, Australia, the UK and the US are pooling the talents of their defence sectors to develop at pace the delivery of advanced capabilities. Four UK companies have been selected by the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) to receive a share of £2 million of funding to develop solutions in electromagnetic targeting and protection.
The competition was run to find low cost, disposable, high volume and highly autonomous electromagnetic technology that can detect enemy actions or protect against them.
