US to complete review into AUKUS defence pact in autumn

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) -The United States will complete a review into a defence pact with the United Kingdom and Australia in the northern hemisphere autumn, the office of a top Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said in June it had launched a formal review into the AUKUS defence deal – worth hundreds of billions of dollars – that will allow Australia to acquire U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, causing alarm in Canberra.

The review into the 2021 deal struck during the Biden administration is being led by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, a public critic of the pact.

Colby’s office said in a post on X on Wednesday (Tuesday EST) the review will be an “empirical and clear-eyed assessment” of the deal.

“The Department anticipates completing the review in the fall,” the post said.

“Its purpose will be to provide the President and his senior leadership team with a fact-based, rigorous assessment of the initiative.”

AUKUS is Australia’s biggest-ever defence project, with Canberra committing to spend A$368 billion ($240 billion) over three decades to the programme, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the U.S. submarine production base.

Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, said last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and U.S. industry could not produce enough to meet American demand.

Australia, which this month paid A$800 million to the U.S. in the second instalment under AUKUS, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed.

Australia and Britain on Saturday signed a bilateral 50-year submarine pact, that they said builds on the AUKUS alliance with the U.S.

($1 = 1.5323 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Michael Perry)