AUKUS central to Australia’s security, Anthony Albanese tells British PM Sunak

The Prime Minister has sought to shore up support from UK counterpart, Rishi Sunak, amid concerns the pact will be sidelined by Australia’s selection of a US submarine.

Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hold a bilateral meeting in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. Picture: Getty Images

Anthony Albanese has told new British counterpart Rishi Sunak that the AUKUS trilateral partnership is central to Australia’s security, seeking to lock in support for the pact amid British concerns it will be sidelined by Australia’s selection of a US submarine.

The Prime Minister sat down for the first time with Mr Sunak on the margins of the G20 Summit in Bali, briefing him on Australia’s classified nuclear submarine plans and the government’s latest thinking on how it will fill a decade-plus “capability gap” before the boats arrive.

Mr Albanese said they spoke about the AUKUS partnership and the defence strategic review being undertaken by former defence minister Stephen Smith and former chief of defence Sir Angus Houston, but he was unable to reveal details of the talks.

“Obviously, some of those matters are things that I won’t go into publicly but they’ll be the subject of the defence strategic review that you will see before March of next year,” he said.

A readout of their conversation issued by Downing St said the leaders “underlined the importance of the AUKUS partnership”, while the British leader stressed “the importance of the Indo-Pacific region to the UK”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit each other’s nations in 2023. Picture:: Rosaline Walters

Mr Albanese also discussed AUKUS with US President Joe Biden during a bilateral meeting at the ASEAN Summit earlier this week in Cambodia, and spoke about defence co-operation with French President Emmanuel Macron in Bali.

Mr Macron later said the offer of a French submarine remained “on the table”, but there is no appetite in Canberra to revisit such a deal with Paris after the cancellation of the Attack-class boats.

After talks with Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi at the G20, the Prime Minister confirmed he would visit India in March next year, ahead of a second visit to New Delhi for the G20 later in the year.

Mr Modi will also visit Australia next year and will be offered the opportunity to address the Australian parliament.

The Prime Minister, who heads to Bangkok late on Thursday for APEC talks, said he had “cemented” Australia’s relationships with key allies at the G20 and ASEAN talks.

The biggest ticket item under the three-way AUKUS partnership will be Australia’s nuclear submarines, but the agreement also promises co-operation on capabilities including hypersonic missiles, autonomous undersea vehicles, cyber, AI and quantum computing.

(From left) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi take part in a tree-planting event on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali. Picture: AFP

The UK is looking closely at what it will get out of the deal given mounting signs Australia is likely to select the US Virginia-class nuclear submarine over Britain’s Astute, unless all three countries can agree on a common design.

There are also concerns in Australia that the UK is preoccupied with the Ukraine war, leaving it with limited strategic bandwidth for Indo-Pacific matters.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Justin Bassi, who was previously chief of staff to then-foreign minister Marise Payne, said the Albanese-Sunak meeting was a chance for Australia to reassure that the UK has a long-term stake in AUKUS regardless of the submarine decision.

“Albanese would probably have been ensuring that AUKUS continues as the trilateral partnership, which was its original intent,” Mr Bassi said.

“Obviously, Boris Johnson was a core supporter of AUKUS, and we know that Liz Truss if anything put even greater stock in the trilateral relationship.

“I think Albanese would have been mindful that the Brits have got a lot on domestically, a lot on with Russia, but would have emphasised that Sunak’s two predecessors placed a great focus on the Indo-Pacific, and that AUKUS is a key part of that.”

Mr Bassi said the UK would be aware that Australia’s defence establishment saw benefits in selecting a US boat, and might be concerned it would “drop down the batting order”.