It binds the three countries to security arrangements for the transfer of sensitive US and UK nuclear material and know-how as part of the tripartite 2021 AUKUS security accord, AFP reported.
AUKUS, which envisages building an Australian nuclear-powered submarine fleet and jointly developing advanced warfighting capabilities.
“This agreement is an important step toward Australia’s acquisition of conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy,” said Richard Marles, Australia’s defense minister and deputy prime minister.
Australia’s acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet would set the “highest non-proliferation standards,” he said, stressing that the country did not seek nuclear weapons.
The latest deal — signed in Washington last week and tabled in the Australian parliament on Monday — includes a provision for Australia to indemnify its partners against any liability for nuclear risks from material sent to the country.
Nuclear material for the future submarines’ propulsion would be transferred from the United States or Britain in “complete, welded power units,” it says.
However, Australia would be responsible for the storage and disposal of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste from the nuclear power units that are transferred under the deal.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi warned in a visit to Australia in April that AUKUS raised “serious nuclear proliferation risks,” saying it ran counter to a South Pacific treaty banning nuclear weapons in the region.
SD/
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