The Morrison-Joko meeting was suspended prior to the announcement of the Australian submarines

Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced on Thursday a historic new partnership known as AUKUS, which will allow Canberra to use American technology and build a fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines and continue long-range hypersonic missile technology and submarine drones.

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The three-way security pact comes in the face of accelerating China’s militarization of the South China Sea and is angry with Beijing that the deal will seriously undermine regional peace and stability and enhance armaments.

Morrison will be in Washington from Monday to Saturday next week at the first summit of the Quad group of countries, made up of Australia, the United States, Japan and India.

The trip follows the visit of Mr. Dutton and Senator Paynes to Washington this week for the annual Australian-US ministerial talks, where they agreed with their U.S. counterparts to investigate increasing U.S. troops orbiting through North Australia and bilateral military exercises. They also presented the possibility of a naval base in Australia that could host a submarine and surface fleet.

Together with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Dutton and Senator Payne expressed continued concern about China’s extensive maritime demands on the South China Sea, which have no legal basis.

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They also stressed the important role of Taiwanese in the Indo-Pacific region and said both sides announced their intention to strengthen their relations with Taiwan. Beijing demands Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Dutton said China’s eruptions and propaganda about the development of nuclear-powered submarines in Australia would not prevent the country from deepening defense ties with the United States.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Australia said the country strongly opposes and rejects unfounded allegations and erroneous remarks against China on the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other China-related issues in a U.S.-US statement. Australia.

We urge the Australian side to abandon the old Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical view, to treat its relations with China in a genuinely independent manner, to stop further slippage in damaging Sino-Australian relations and to do more to increase mutual trust and promote practical cooperation.

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Australia’s decision to buy nuclear submarines meant dramatic dumping on its $ 90 billion problematic contract with Frances Naval Group, which built 12 normally operating submarines, wasting more than $ 2.4 billion on sunk costs and compensation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he felt a stabbing in his back because it did not approve of an agreement that excludes the French military from a key initiative in Western efforts to build shelters against China.

Australia and France had discussed strengthening their military ties, including increasing access for French soldiers to Australian military bases. Morrison confirmed the talks on Thursday and said I hope we will continue to discuss these issues with the French.

Dennis Richardson, who was head of the Department of Defense when the French bid was selected in 2016, said conditions were messy, but the decision to continue nuclear-powered submarines was the right one in the long run.

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Richardson, however, warned that the challenge of building submarines in Australia was far greater than many people think, and it roughly corresponds to the Snowy Mountain project after World War II.

We do not have all the skills needed in Australia to build a nuclear submarine. We have some of these skills, but in the nuclear industry we have very little of it, he said.

There are a number of regulatory requirements that need to be put in place, particularly with regard to safety, but the government has acknowledged this.

Richardson said the French feel very betrayed, and it was worse than the Japanese would have felt when Australia made the decision to leave with France.

Whatever the Japanese believed, there was never an agreement. While the arrangement with the French has been in place since 2016, so much work has been done, a lot of money has been spent and the French are understandably very confused, he said.