Australia and UK to Sign 50-Year Defence Treaty Under AUKUS Alliance

Australia and the UK is set to sign a new 50-year treaty to shore up defence ties during an official visit to Sydney.

The treaty between the two nations will sit within the greater AUKUS defence alliance between Australia, the UK and the United States.

“This historic treaty confirms our AUKUS commitment for the next half century,” said UK Defence Secretary John Healey, who is in Australia with Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Both met with Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles as part of the ongoing AUKMIN dialogue—the second iteration under British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

In a statement on the UK government’s website said the deal would be worth up to 20 billion pounds to the UK in exports over the next 25 years, saying it would create create over 7,000 new jobs in UK shipyards and across the supply chain in Barrow, Derby, and other locations.

“There will be over 21,000 people working on the conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered AUKUS submarine programme (known as SSN-AUKUS) in the UK at its peak, contributing to opportunities and economic growth in local communities across the UK,” the statement read.

The new AUKUS-class submarine will be built in Adelaide and delivered in the 2040s.

Under the $368 billion trilateral AUKUS program, Australia will first buy at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines from the United States in the early 2030s, as a stopgap before new submarines are available.

UK Carrier Group in Australia for 1st Time Since 1997

On July 27, the four ministers will travel to Darwin for the deployment of a United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group to Australia as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025.

The strike group, led by the Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales, arrived in Darwin on July 23.

It is the first visit from a UK carrier strike group since 1997.

UK High Commissioner to Australia Sarah MacIntosh said the arrival of the strike group was a demonstration of the commitment to the alliance between Australia and the UK.

“This is an anchor relationship in a contested world,” she said.

The UK now has six-monthly ministerial meetings with Australia.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Alex Bristow said the show of support between nations was significant.

“The tempo of it increasing, I think, is a signal that Britain is moving into an elite category,” he told AAP.

Bristow said NATO had identified China as a threat to its interests due to alliances with Russia and China, and European nations were well placed to form their own alliances in the region.

“It’s entirely in the interests of European allies in NATO to be working with Indo-Pacific allies,” he said.

Likewise, Minister Marles deemed the UK a “critical partner” for Australia.

“We continue to work closely together, including through the AUKUS partnership, to address shared strategic challenges in an increasingly complex and uncertain world,” he said.

Minister Wong said that in “uncertain times,” the two nations were “strengthening and modernising” their relationship.

“We take the world as it is, but together, we are working to shape it for the better,” she said.