By David Brunnstrom and Kirsty Needham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Australia has assured Washington that U.S. technology will be safe under a plan to supply it with nuclear-powered submarines in a tripartite deal also including Britain, Canberra’s ambassador to the United States said on Thursday.
Speaking to a U.S. think tank, Arthur Sinodinos also said that when details of the so-called AUKUS submarine deal are announced in mid-March, people would see there had been a “genuine trilateral solution.”
Under the AUKUS deal announced in 2021 the United States and Britain agreed to provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines as part of joint efforts to counter the increasing threat posed by China in the Indo-Pacific region.
However, both have closely guarded nuclear submarine programs and the three allies have yet to say exactly how the capability will be transferred to Australia, which does not have a domestic nuclear propulsion industry.
Asked about strict controls on exports of technology under U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations that have hampered past U.S. defense cooperation deals and whether there would be exemptions for Australia, Sinodinos said the Biden administration had done a lot of work aimed at “a seamless transfer of technology.”
“That work is underway; it’s not finished, but compared with say six months ago, the work is getting done,” he told Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
“We’ve assured Americans and shown them the sort of protection of information measures that we take to make sure they understand that their technology is safe in terms of leakage to third parties and all the rest of it. So we’re getting there,” he said.
Sinodinos said he would “not prejudge the outcome,” but added: “The very fact that the Americans are prepared to share their crown jewels with us implies that there will have to be progress on the seamless transfer of technology. None of us want this to be bogged down. And I think that state of mind has now permeated through various levels of the (U.S.) administration.”
Leaders from Australia and Britain are expected to travel to Washington this month to announce the way forward on AUKUS after an 18-month consultation period.
On Wednesday, British and Australian defense officials said more work was needed to break down bureaucratic barriers to technology sharing in the second pillar of the AUKUS agreement dealing with advanced technology programs such as artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina in Washington and Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Chris Reese and Stephen Coates)
