A landmark AUKUS meeting will be held in the UK today as the
Defence Secretary hosts counterparts from the US
and Australia in London.
The meeting will be the first trilateral Defence Ministers AUKUS
meeting to be held outside of the United States. Healey will host
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 co-operation, 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, 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.
I'm delighted that we will soon be commencing negotiations on a
bilateral AUKUS treaty with Australia, which will help create a
more secure and stable Indo-Pacific for decades to come.
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.
