The Australian government has sought to assure south-east Asian and Pacific countries that its nuclear-powered submarine plan – to be announced early next week – aims to safeguard “the peace and the stability of our region”.
After a series of leaks about the potential shape of the Aukus deal, the opposition offered bipartisan support to the government’s overall decisions, while pledging to “fight to make sure the outcome is achieved as quickly as possible”.
The comments follow a report by the Guardian that the long-term plan for Australian nuclear-powered submarines would likely involve a British submarine design with heavy use of American technology.
That does not preclude a US interim solution to plug a potential capability gap caused by the retirement of Australia’s existing Collins class conventional submarines from the late 2030s.
Reuters cited four US officials as saying Australia was expected to buy up to five US Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines in the 2030s as part of the Aukus deal.
The US president, Joe Biden, will welcome the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to San Diego to make the announcement on Monday US time.
The acting prime minister, Richard Marles, refused to confirm the details in parliament on Thursday, saying the announcement would be made “very shortly”.
Marles, also the Labor defence minister, acknowledged that the 18-month process to refine the plans with the US and the UK had started under the former Coalition government.
He specifically mentioned the former prime minister Scott Morrison and the former defence minister Peter Dutton “because this is a moment that we want to be – and we know is – a bipartisan moment of huge significance to our country”.
“It is difficult to overstate the step that, as a nation, we are about to take,” Marles said.
“Australia will become just the seventh country to have the ability to operate a nuclear-powered submarine. We have never operated a military capability at this level before.”
Marles said it would be “a massive industrial endeavour, which will see thousands of jobs created over the coming decades, but much more importantly, will contribute to the technological advancement of our wider economy”.
Some countries – such as Indonesia and Malaysia – have previously expressed concerns that the Aukus plans could contribute to an arms race in the region.
Marles sought to allay such concerns, saying although the submarines would have the capability to operate at war, “the true intent” was to defend the rules-based order across the region.
He said Australia was an island trading nation and “the defence of Australia doesn’t really mean that much unless we can have collective security”.
“So I want to say at this moment to our neighbours and to our friends around the world that as Australia invests in its defence, as we acquire this nuclear-powered submarine capability, we do so as part of making our contribution to the peace and the stability of our region and of the world,” Marles said.
Dutton, now the opposition leader, said he agreed that “our neighbours should hear the very clear message that this is about providing peace and stability for our future and for theirs”.
Dutton previously caused a stir as defence minister by saying the country should “prepare for war” and by explicitly predicting Australia would join the US to defend Taiwan in a potential conflict with China.
But he told parliament on Thursday: “We are not an aggressive nation. We are a nation that strives for peace.”
The Liberal leader – who last week issued public warnings about the risk of going for a yet-to-be-developed British design – said the Australian people could see “the two major parties in this country working together in the nation’s best interests”.
“We will support the decisions of the government under Aukus and fight to make sure the outcome is achieved as quickly as possible,” Dutton said.
Albanese, who is in India on a trade mission ahead of his onward travel to the US, also refused to be drawn on the details of the Aukus plan. He said the announcement would be made “in the appropriate way, on Monday, US time, in San Diego”.
“This is a joint arrangement between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom,” the prime minister told reporters in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
“We’re great friends. We have over a century of standing side by side during peacetime and during conflict, and I look forward to the announcements next week.”
Albanese reiterated that Australia would “retain absolutely our sovereignty, our absolute sovereignty, 100%” amid lingering questions over the control of the submarines given the reliance on US and UK support.
The head of the Australian government’s nuclear-powered submarine taskforce, V Adm Jonathan Mead, said on Wednesday the looming announcement would show that the plans were “really a trilateral partnership” with US and UK, rather than a binary choice.
The Australian government has sought to “stabilise” the relationship with China – the country’s largest trading partner – after years of tensions.
But Marles last week renewed concerns that China was “driving the largest conventional military buildup we’ve seen anywhere in the world since the second world war – and much of this buildup is opaque”.
