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30-06-2024
WASHINGTON/ CANBERRA: Adding partners to the AUKUS defense project would be “complicated,” a senior Australian diplomat said on Friday, saying he did not believe the US Congress is open to expanding the pact involving Australia, the US and Britain.
AUKUS was formed in 2021 to counterbalance China’s growing power. A first “pillar” involves cooperation between the three partners to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, but they have raised the possibility of other countries joining a second pillar to develop other high-tech weaponry.
Paul Myler, deputy head of mission at Australia’s embassy in Washington, said that it was an “almost inconceivable” achievement that after 40 years of effort to reform US export control restrictions, the partners were on the verge of creating an environment for easier collaboration and co-development.
“Adding additional partners to that process is complicated,” he told an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington.
Myler noted that the three AUKUS partners had committed to talk to Japan about what might be possible in terms of collaboration, and Japan had shown the political will to field defense capabilities in a timely fashion.
“So … there’s a fundamental alignment there,” he said but “I think I need to be really clear: My shorthand for this is not Japan as being invited into AUKUS. AUKUS is reaching out to Japan, to find some collaboration that we can do out there.”
“I don’t think Congress would consider it (AUKUS) open for expansion, but AUKUS partners can certainly reach out and do collaboration out there,” he said.
AUKUS still has to overcome hurdles from strict US restrictions on sharing technology, and Canberra and London worry it could get bogged down if new members are added too quickly.
There has been some hesitation about involving Japan, with officials and experts highlighting its cyber and information security vulnerabilities.
At the end of April, the US State Department unveiled a plan to reduce licensing requirements for transferring military gear and sensitive technology among AUKUS partners. It said on April 19 it expects to finalize trade exemptions for AUKUS in the next 120 days.
In April, the US State Department said on Friday it expects to finalize trade exemptions for the AUKUS defense project with Australia and Britain in the next 120 days, signaling a further delay in but offering the prospect of a positive outcome in the project to counter China.
AUKUS, formed in 2021 to address shared worries about China’s growing power, would involve Australia acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines, among other items of defense cooperation but the sharing of closely guarded technology is governed by strict US International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires President Joe Biden to determine within 120 days of his signing it into law on Dec. 22 whether Australia and Britain have export control regimes “comparable to the United States” and thereby qualify for exemptions to the ITAR regulations. The 120 days is reached on Saturday.
“Exemptions in our export control systems, within a framework of shared standards with Australia and the UK, are key to harnessing and maximizing the innovative power residing in our defense industrial bases,” the State Department said.
“We fully expect to finalize the new trade exemptions based on stakeholder input over the course of the next 120 days,” it said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
