Britain is to build a new fleet of nuclear submarines for Australia following the signing of a trilateral pact with the United States in San Diego on Monday.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed the AUKUS deal with U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and it was then announced that Britain had been chosen to build Australia’s first tailor-made nuclear submarines, which would be delivered in the 2040s.
Under the deal—which will cost the Australian government AU$368 billion (£201 billion)—Canberra would buy three U.S. submarines of the Virginia-class in the early 2030s.
Prior to that, from 2027, Britain and the United States will station their own nuclear submarines in the port of Perth, Western Australia, from where they will patrol the Pacific and Indian Oceans as part of a deterrent to growing Chinese assertiveness and aggression in the region….