Kevin Rudd delivered a blunt rebuke of congress for flow progress on AUKUS changes

In a blunt warning to senior US officials and defence industry experts ambassador Kevin Rudd urged congress to make the necessary changes to US law to make AUKUS operational.

Kevin Rudd, Australian Ambassador to the United States.

Kevin Rudd has slammed “really crazy” and “ridiculous” US regulations that could thwart the transfer of US nuclear submarines to Australia as part of the AUKUS security pact, urging senior Biden administration officials to put pressure on a paralysed congress to expedite the necessary changes to facilitate the landmark agreement.

Dr Rudd, ambassador to the US, also said Australia would remain “rock solid” with the US in the face of “challenges which lie ahead [that] are beyond our imagining”, referring to the prospect of war in the Middle East, Ukraine and China’s growing threat in the Indo-Pacific.

In a speech at the G’Day Defence Dialogue, run by the American Australian Association, in Washington on Thursday (Friday AEST), Mr Rudd sounded the alarm on congress’s slow progress in changing strict US regulations that would hamper the transfer of US military technology to Australia as promised under AUKUS.

“What we cannot afford in the future, is the continuation of the most ridiculous manifestations of the ITAR regime,” he said, referring to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which in their current state would throttle the creation of a seamless defence industrial base between the two countries.

The Biden administration and US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy have repeatedly sought to reassure Australia that the necessary regulatory changes would occur, and the government remains confident they will be made, even if Donald Trump returns to the White House after the 2024 presidential election.

Dr Rudd said amending the rules, which require congressional changes, would be a “monumental step forward in realising this mission of a seamless industry”.

Jeffrey Bialos, a senior defence policy adviser to the Clinton administration, earlier this month told The Australian that AUKUS was “doomed to failure” without further changes, amid additional concerns that congress might ultimately baulk at the sale of nuclear powered submarines to Australia given the US navy’s own requirements.

“We’re not a bunch of naive Australians who wander into town and think that everything can be waved away at once,” Dr Rudd said, speaking to an audience including senior defence experts an Biden administration officials.

Dr Rudd’s warning came weeks before the prime minister was due to arrive in Washington for an official state visit at the White House hosted by US President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.

The former prime minister, who succeeded Arthur Sinodinos as ambassador earlier this year, also warned US bureaucrats not to engage in “regulatory clawback” if the legislative changes were eventually approved. “Guess what? We’re all alert to that – we don’t intend to allow it to happen”.

“There was a time in our relationships that we could seminar these things to death. The time for ‘seminaring’ is over – the time for action is now.”

Provisions to approve the transfer of Virginia-class submarines to Australia, which is expected to buy between three and five from the US in the early 2030s, remain bogged down in debate in congress as Republicans and Democrats thrash out an annual defence spending bill.

“Waiting for weeks, months or even years for spare parts or stocks to be replenished is no longer viable … One of the many military lessons from Ukraine is that defence materiel depletes quickly in a conflict.”

Wading into the crisis in the Middle East, Dr Rudd also declared Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organisation responsible for savage attacks on Israel last week, was “the very face of evil”. “A leopard does not change its spots,” he said, reminding the audience of Australia’s decision when he was prime minister to ban the group as an international terrorist organisation.

“The burden of American strategic leadership as the world’s remaining superpower is to deal with all of these challenges simultaneously,” Rudd told the gathering, which included Biden administration officials, members of parliament, diplomats and defence industry heads.

“But the responsibility, in the same breath, for allies of the United States like Australia is to be rock solid with the United States as it confronts each and every one of these challenges … and that is where the government of Australia proudly stands today.”