WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- President Joe Biden met Monday with the leaders of Australia and Britain at a California naval base and announced a nuclear submarines deal.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined Biden at the base in San Diego 18 months after their countries formed an alliance called AUKUS with the principal goal of bringing Australia into the fold of navies possessing nuclear-powered submarines.
While Australia has ruled out deploying atomic weapons, its acquisition of the nuclear-powered vessels will transform its role in a U.S.-led project to step up its military presence in the Pacific.
According to U.S. media, Biden would announce a long-term, multi-stage plan destined to make Australia a full partner in fielding top-secret U.S. nuclear technology previously only shared with historic ally Britain.
As many as five Virginia-class U.S. nuclear-powered submarines will be sold to Australia over the next decade, The Washington Post reported. Australia and Britain would then both embark on building a new submarine model, using U.S. propulsion technology and dubbed the SSN-AUKUS, with delivery in the 2040s.
While the plan will require years to come to fruition, it marks an ambitious shift from Australia and the United States.
Australia had previously been on track to replace its aging current fleet of diesel-powered submarines with a $66-billion package of French vessels, also conventionally powered.
The abrupt announcement by Canberra that it was backing out of that deal and entering the AUKUS project sparked an unusually furious row between all three countries and their close ally France.
Australia is now looking to wield U.S. and, later, U.S.-British underwater vessels, which will be able to stay submerged almost indefinitely and launch powerful cruise missiles.
Compared to the Collins-class submarines due to be retired by Australia, the Virginia-class is almost twice as long and carries 132 crew, not 48.
China warned that AUKUS risked setting off an arms race and accused the three countries of setting back nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
“We urge the U.S., the UK and Australia to abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, honor international obligations in good faith and do more things that are conducive to regional peace and stability,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
The communist country’s leader Xi Jinping made a fiery statement last week accusing the United States of leading a Western effort at “all-round containment, encirclement and suppression of China.”