On December 7, 2022, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosted the
Honourable Richard Marles MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
for Defence, Australia, and the Right Honourable , Secretary of State for Defence, United Kingdom, at
the Pentagon to discuss the Australia-United Kingdom-United
States Security Partnership (AUKUS).
The Secretary of Defense, Deputy Prime Minister, and Secretary of
State for Defence reviewed the significant progress to date on
the trilateral effort to support Australia’s acquisition of
conventionally-armed, nuclear powered submarines and the
trilateral development of advanced capabilities. They emphasised
that AUKUS will make a positive contribution to peace and
stability in the Indo-Pacific region by enhancing deterrence. The
Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister expressed their confidence
in continued progress ahead of the end of the 18-month
consultation period regarding naval nuclear propulsion and
announcement on the optimal pathway by the President and Prime
Ministers in early 2023.
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister highlighted the
exceptional progress that has been made on trilateral efforts to
identify the optimal path for Australia to acquire
conventionally-armed, nuclear powered submarine capability at the
earliest possible date. They reiterated their shared commitment
to set and uphold the highest standards for nuclear
nonproliferation, and welcomed the ongoing, extensive and
productive engagement that has been carried out with the
International Atomic Energy Agency to date.
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister endorsed efforts to
orient capability development to accelerate near-term delivery of
technologies that will meet our militaries’ requirements to
enhance capability and increase interoperability. These include
initiatives for advanced trilateral maritime undersea
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities and
use of each country’s autonomous systems to enhance maritime
domain awareness. They further noted the role recent exercises
have played in demonstrating and testing advanced capabilities,
and approved plans to pursue additional demonstrations of several
collaborative initiatives—including hypersonic and autonomous
systems—in the 2023-2024 timeframe and beyond.
Trilateral capability development will benefit from targeted
engagement with defence industry and academic communities within
and across our national ecosystems. The three countries intend to
intensify engagement with these communities beginning in calendar
year 2023. Deeper government, academic, and defence industrial
base cooperation on advanced systems will require sustained
efforts to continue to improve information and technology
sharing. The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister reaffirmed
their commitment to ongoing work within national systems to
enable more robust sharing in these areas.
The Secretaries and Deputy Prime Minister committed to continued
openness and transparency with international partners on AUKUS.
They further emphasised that AUKUS is a strategic partnership
focused on enhancing regional stability and safeguarding a free
and open Indo-Pacific where conflicts are resolved peacefully and
without coercion. They confirmed that AUKUS will complement AUKUS
partners’ engagement with existing regional architecture,
including ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum.
