The US is reviewing the Aukus nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia to assess whether it aligns with Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, casting doubt on the trilateral agreement aimed at countering China.
A Pentagon official said the 2021 deal was being reviewed to ensure it “aligned with the president’s America First agenda” ahead of his talks with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese at the upcoming G7 summit in Canada.
The £176bn Aukus agreement involving Australia, the US and the UK is a strategic security partnership aimed primarily at helping Australia acquire nuclear submarines using American and British technology, marking a major advancement in the country’s military capabilities.
Australian defence minister Richard Marles said on Thursday Canberra was confident the pact would proceed and that their government would closely work with the Trump administration.
“I am very confident this is going to happen,” he told ABC News, adding that Aukus was in the strategic interests of all three countries.
He claimed that a review of the deal signed under former US president Joe Biden was not a surprise. “This is a multi-decade plan,” he said. “There will be governments that come and go, and I think whenever we see a new government a review of this kind is going to be something which will be undertaken.”
The statement came after media reports said the US was reviewing its commitment to the pact. It was first reported by the Financial Times, citing six people familiar with the matter.
“The department is reviewing Aukus as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous administration is aligned with the president’s ‘America first’ agenda,” a Pentagon official was quoted as saying. “This means ensuring the highest readiness of our service members, that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defence and that the defence industrial base is meeting our needs.”
The Pentagon’s top policy adviser, Elbridge Colby, who has previously raised concerns that the US could lose submarines to Australia at a critical time for military deterrence against China, will be a key figure in the review, examining the production rate of Virginia-class submarines, Mr Marles confirmed.
Australia and the UK have both faced pressure from the White House to increase their military spending. While the UK has heeded the demand, Australia has resisted it.
Mr Albanese is expected to meet Mr Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. They are likely to discuss Washington’s demand that Australia increase its defence spending from 2 to 3.5 per cent of its GDP.
Mr Albanese has said Australia’s defence spending will rise to 2.3 per cent but has declined to commit to America’s target.
The possibility of the deal collapsing has caused anxiety in London and Canberra but has been met with cheers in Beijing, experts said.
John Lee, an Indo-Pacific expert at Washington’s conservative Hudson Institute think tank, said the Pentagon review was “primarily an audit of American capability” and whether it could afford to sell up to five nuclear submarines when it wasn’t meeting its own production targets.
“Relatedly, the low Australian defence spending and ambiguity as to how it might contribute to a Taiwan contingency is also a factor,” Mr Lee said.
John Hamre, president of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a former senior Pentagon official, told a Lowy Institute seminar in Sydney on Thursday there was a perception in Washington that “the Albanese government has been supportive of Aukus but not really leaning in on Aukus”, with defence spending being part of this.
