Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Adelaide-built nuclear-powered submarines will help forge peace

International rules agreed to after WWII are being undermined, Senator Penny Wong says – and nuclear submarines are needed to ensure stability.

Australia wants to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines in Adelaide to help forge peace, prosperity and stability in a region at the epicentre of competition between great powers, says Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong.

In an interview with The Advertiser, Senator Wong said our region was being reshaped by a global order under more pressure than at any time since the end of World War II.

Asked if the submarine build’s urgency under the AUKUS pact was related to China’s rise, Senator Wong said it was to replace an “ageing capability” – the six Adelaide-built Collins class submarines set to remain in service until the 2030s.

“What I’ve said and what I say to countries in the region is that Australia seeks this capability because we want to contribute to the sort of region we want,” Senator Wong said.

“We want a stable, peaceful, prosperous region where sovereignty is respected and that is Australia’s intention with this capability.”

But Senator Wong said international rules, norms and practices agreed after World War II when “we built the peace” were being undermined or not observed and competition was escalating.

Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Penny Wong. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“We live in a time where our region is being reshaped and the global order is coming under pressure in a way we haven’t seen since World War II,” Senator Wong said.

“ … So for Australia, which has often been distant from the competition between great powers, this is a competition that is in our region. Strategic competition is happening in our region and so that brings greater risk and greater responsibility to Australia.”

Senator Wong – now in the United States for top-level ministerial talks – said Australia, as a middle power, sought to build nuclear-powered submarines to enable stability.

“ We have an interest in stability, peace, prosperity. We have an interest in predictability and we have an interest in trading arrangements that we can utilise to benefit Australians,” she said.

Senator Wong, also the Government Senate Leader, rejected suggestions Australia had to juggle relationships between the United States and China – our biggest security and trading partners respectively – instead pointing to her post-election diplomatic surge through South East Asia and the Pacific.

“The most important relationship for that is obviously our principal security relationship, which is with the United States but we also have to exercise our own agency and expand our influence and our power in the region,” she said.

November’s meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese PresidentXi Jinping at Indonesia’s G20 summit was a “good thing”, Senator Wong said, adding Australia sought to stabilise the relationship and would continue to advocate for trade impediments to be removed in both nations’ interests.

Senator Wong said the economic future of her home state, South Australia, would be bolstered for decades by submarine construction being the largest component of the AUKUS agreement.

“I think it is important to remember that this is only the second time – the first time in 70 years and only the second time in history – that the US has been prepared to share its nuclear propulsion technology,” she said.

“A nuclear submarine is one of the most sophisticated and complex systems that humanity builds. So obviously, being part of that is implies an uplift in not just jobs, but in skills that is quite extraordinary and will serve this state very well and be an important part of the state’s future for decades to come.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman and fellow SA Senator Simon Birmingham urged an overseas recruitment drive to secure sufficient skilled workers for the submarine program.

“There is much to gain from the opportunities that AUKUS opens up but also much to do to realise those opportunities,” he said.

“We have huge skills and infrastructure needs required to successfully construct nuclear-powered submarines, which will require a relentless focus on training along with securing skilled workers from the US and UK who can help us build the subs as quickly as possible.”

Originally published as Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Adelaide-built nuclear-powered submarines will help forge peace