Joint Leaders Statement on AUKUS
- Written by Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison
As leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, guided by our enduring ideals and shared commitment to the international rules-based order, we resolve to deepen diplomatic, security, and defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including by working with partners, to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. As part of this effort, we are announcing the creation of an enhanced trilateral security partnership called “AUKUS” -- Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Through AUKUS, our governments will strengthen the ability of each to support our security and defense interests, building on our longstanding and ongoing bilateral ties. We will promote deeper information and technology sharing. We will foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains. And in particular, we will significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities.
As the first initiative under AUKUS, recognizing our common tradition as maritime democracies, we commit to a shared ambition to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy. Today, we embark on a trilateral effort of 18 months to seek an optimal pathway to deliver this capability. We will leverage expertise from the United States and the United Kingdom, building on the two countries’ submarine programs to bring an Australian capability into service at the earliest achievable date.
The development of Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines would be a joint endeavour between the three nations, with a focus on interoperability, commonality, and mutual benefit. Australia is committed to adhering to the highest standards for safeguards, transparency, verification, and accountancy measures to ensure the non-proliferation, safety, and security of nuclear material and technology. Australia remains committed to fulfilling all of its obligations as a non-nuclear weapons state, including with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Our three nations are deeply committed to upholding our leadership on global non-proliferation.
Recognizing our deep defense ties, built over decades, today we also embark on further trilateral collaboration under AUKUS to enhance our joint capabilities and interoperability. These initial efforts will focus on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.
The endeavour we launch today will help sustain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. For more than 70 years, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, have worked together, along with other important allies and partners, to protect our shared values and promote security and prosperity. Today, with the formation of AUKUS, we recommit ourselves to this vision.
PRIME MINISTER: Good morning from Australia.
I am very pleased to join two great friends of freedom and of Australia, Prime Minister Johnson and President Biden.
Today, we join our nations in a next generation partnership, built on a strong foundation of proven trust.
We have always seen the world through a similar lens.
We have always believed in a world that favours freedom, that respects human dignity, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states and the peaceful fellowship of nations.
And while we have always looked to each other to do what we believe is right, we have never left it to each other. Always together, never alone.
Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region, the Indo-Pacific.
This affects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures.
To meet these challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.
A partnership that seeks to engage, not to exclude. To contribute, not take. And to enable and empower, not to control or coerce.
And so, friends, AUKUS is born.
A new enhanced trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - AUKUS.
A partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our defence forces are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all.
AUKUS will also enhance our contribution to our growing network of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region - ANZUS, our ASEAN friends, our bilateral strategic partners, the Quad, Five Eyes countries and, of course, our dear Pacific family.
The first major initiative of AUKUS will be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. Over the next eighteen months we will work together to seek to determine the best way forward to achieve this.
This will include an intense examination of what we need to do to exercise our nuclear stewardship responsibilities here in Australia.
We intend to build these submarines in Adelaide, Australia, in close cooperation with the United Kingdom and the United States.
But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability.
And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
Australia has a long history of defence cooperation with the United States and the United Kingdom.
For more than a century, we have stood together for the cause of peace and freedom.
Motivated by the beliefs we share, sustained by the bonds of friendship we have forged, enabled by the sacrifice of those who have gone before us, and inspired by our shared hope for those who will follow us.
And so, today, friends, we recommit ourselves to this cause and a new AUKUS vision.
