Tag : AUKUS

San Diego (United States): United States President Joe Biden along with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday announced that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the US to modernise its fleet. The agreement is aimed at countering China's influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Addressing a joint statement after holding in person bilateral talks on a US naval base in San Diego, California, the three leaders underscored their shared commitment to the 18-month-old trilateral security partnership given the acronym AUKUS -- for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. "Today, we're announcing the steps to carry out our first project under AUKUS and developing Australia's conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarine capacity. The submarines are nuclear-powered and not nuclear-armed," said US President Joe Biden at the Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego. Biden, flanked by Albanese and Sunak, also highlighted that the agreement's purpose was solely not only to sell submarines to Australia but also to develop something new together. Biden said, "United Nations will sell three submarines to Australia with the potential to sell two more if needed. The ultimate goal is not just selling submarines to Australia, it is developing something new together, we are calling it the SSN-AUKUS." US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan addressing a press gaggle on board Air Force One ahead of the San Diego meeting said that partnership will lay out a multi-phase process that begins over the next few years and begins immediately with the training of Australian sailors, engineers, technicians, and other personnel to be able to take on the responsibility and ...