White House optimistic about tech sharing for AUS security deal

The White House has expressed hope that the US, UK and Australia will clear a major hurdle by allowing Canberra to transfer technology that would allow it to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said progress had been made in easing some technology export restrictions that U.S. allies have long worried could even undermine the so-called U.S. security accord.

Asked by the Financial Times on Tuesday about restrictions on technology transfers, Sullivan said he was “feeling good on the way to Aukus,” the most confident statement from Washington that he had overcome the regulatory hurdles that complicated the deal.

Auckus “challenged some historical assumptions about what the United States might or might not be prepared to do in a particular era,” Sullivan told a small group of reporters.

The first Aukus agreement was announced in 2021 as a tripartite alliance to counter China’s military with nuclear-powered submarines and advances in technologies ranging from quantum computing to hypersonic weapons.

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told the FT on Tuesday that the allies were “close to an announcement” following an 18-month planning phase to determine how and where to build the boats and what US technology and information would be needed.

But even though the countries are members of the Washington-led Five Eyes spy network, including Canada and New Zealand, the plan has been complicated by long-standing US restrictions on technology and information sharing.

Concerned that U.S. shipyards cannot afford to do more work, two critical decisions will be the choice of submarine design and where the submarines will be built.

Despite the optimism in some quarters, there are concerns in Australia that the US embargo – known as international arms control – could severely limit cooperation not only on submarines, but also in areas such as artificial intelligence and maritime warfare. Agreement of Auxus.

The White House declined to provide details on progress in reducing barriers.

Speaking in London, Marles said the goal was to “create a more seamless defense industrial space between the three countries” but admitted that “there is a long way to go in terms of creating that.”

Becca Wasser, a defense expert at the CNAS think tank, said there had been pressure to make progress on the tech transfer issue, but warned that a wholesale upgrade of ETAR would be difficult.

“Limited exemptions for Australia and the United Kingdom may be better than what the White House can do, but this requires Congress to get on board,” Wasser said. While Jake Sullivan’s optimism is a positive sign of where things are going, tomorrow may not happen and London and Canberra will want to hold their horses, or at least their submarines.

The cost and speed of Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines is one of the challenges for the Labor government, which inherited the deal from the previous government led by Scott Morrison. MARLES This week, a conventional non-nuclear submarine design was again used as a stopgap measure.

Marles, who serves as the defense minister, said the AUC talks are a “deeply collaborative process” on what is “essentially a technology-sharing relationship.” He added that the deal has changed our relationship with the UK and the US and possibly the relationship between the UK and the US.

“This is a big deal,” Marles insists.