Biden To Announce New Trilateral Partnership To Help Australia Acquire Nuclear Powered Submarines

President Joe Biden is set to announce a new trilateral security partnership with Britain and Australia that in part addresses nuclear-defense infrastructure, a senior administration official said.

Biden will speak about the initiative – dubbed AUUKUS – on Wednesday evening at the White House, with both Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the U.K. attending virtually. A senior administration official said the move is dedicated to strengthening America’s alliances and meeting the “challenges of the 21st century.”

Most notably, the three countries will announce their shared efforts in supporting Australia’s wish in acquiring nuclear powered submarines, according to the senior administration official. The countries will launch an 18-month trilateral plan dedicated to figuring out how to best meet Australia’s goals.

Historically, Great Britain is the only other country that the U.S. has shared nuclear technology of this level with, the official pointed out. This arrangement goes back to 1958, and the official said this new deal comes due to “a unique set of circumstances.”

ANNAPOLIS, MD – 1999: (EDITORS NOTE: IMAGE RELEASED BY U.S. MILITARY PRIOR TO TRANSMISSION) In this handout image provided by the U.S. Navy, the nuclear-powered fast attack submarine USS Hartford is moored off the U.S, Naval Academy in 1999 in Annapolis, Maryland. According to reports from U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, two U.S. Navy ships, USS Hartford and USS New Orleans, collided on March 20, 2009 in the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian peninsula. One of the vessels, the USS Hartford a submarine, was nuclear-powered. (Photo by Don S. Montgomery/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

“This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to … deploy for longer periods, they’re quieter, they’re much more capable,” the official said.

The official was adamant that the new partnership – and sharing nuclear-defense infrastructure with Australia – is not aimed at any one country. Still, it appears evident that the underlying context surrounds Western allies’ continued pressure against China, as Politico reported earlier Wednesday.

“This is the biggest strategic step that Australia has taken in generations,” the senior official said. “It’s a substantial strategic alignment for Australia, building on a deep partnership with both countries.”

The situation was described as “nuclear propulsion” and the official said Australia “has no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.”

AUUKUS’s inception comes as Beijing continues to grow its military arsenal. The country has also recently comes exceedingly close to Japanese and U.S. waters, Politico reported. The situation has prompted the Biden administration to work on improving its relationships with other nations that can help protect against China.

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