Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles has said that Australia had received the US review of the AUKUS project and is "working through it". File picture Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Pentagon has completed its review of the AUKUS project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines and has found areas to put the deal on the "strongest possible footing," a US official says.
President Donald Trump's administration said in June it had launched a formal review into the AUKUS defence deal, worth hundreds of billions of dollars and also involving Britain - and a US official said the outcome is expected to be discussed next week at a meeting in Washington of the US and Australian defence and foreign ministers.
Washington is also expected to later host a trilateral ministerial meeting involving Britain.
"Consistent with President Trump's guidance that AUKUS should move 'full steam ahead,' the review identified opportunities to put AUKUS on the strongest possible footing," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said earlier on Thursday (US time) that Australia had received the US review of the AUKUS project and is "working through it".
A British official said Britain had also received the review and welcomed its completion.
The review had sparked alarm in Canberra about what will be Australia's biggest-ever defence commitment, but concerns were eased when Trump signalled his support for the programme in a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House in October.
The plan for AUKUS announced in 2023 under the previous Biden administration envisages the US selling several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, while Britain and Australia will later build a new AUKUS-class submarine using US technology.
The review was led by Under Secretary of Defence Elbridge Colby, who said last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and US industry could not produce enough to meet American demand.
Australia has committed to spend A$368 billion (US$240 billion) over three decades on the programme, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the US submarine production base.
A US official said the meeting of Australian defence and foreign ministers with the US secretaries of defence and state was expected to take place on Monday, while a subsequent meeting of the two countries' top defence officials along with Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey was expected to happen in Washington on Wednesday.
Britain and Australia have yet to confirm those meetings.
- Reuters
