Western Australia defence conference, December 2023: Indo-Pacific Minister's speech
UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific Anne-Marie Trevelyan gave a keynote speech on AUKUS at a 'Future of defence in Western Australia' conference in Perth.
Rebecca, thank you for that very kind introduction.
First, I would also like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Whadjuk Noongar people, and I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and in the future.
I am delighted to be with you all today – this is my fourth trip to Australia this year, and my third to Perth.
Now, it’s not just the beauty of your vibrant city, your families of black swans on the river - we don’t have those in the UK, they’re amazing - or your wonderful climate, that keep bringing me back. Although my friend Stephen Smith, now Australia’s High Commissioner in the UK and your fiercely proud former Federal Member for Perth, often teases me that perhaps it is!
The reason I keep coming back is Perth’s significance to AUKUS as the future home of Australia’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet. You welcomed recently the USS North Carolina into port in August, and it was clear for all to see the ‘Optimal Pathway’ is now very much underway.
The Royal Navy is looking forward to joining our American navy colleagues here more frequently from 2026, as our fleet of Astute class nuclear submarines visits regularly, to strengthen that naval partnership which is protecting the region’s freedom of navigation across Indo-Pacific waters.
Your recent visitor USS North Carolina was a demonstration of those continuing steps forward in what is the long journey towards SSN-AUKUS becoming reality.
So what was the rationale for AUKUS?
AUKUS is a security partnership of global significance.
Events in Israel and Gaza, and indeed Russia’s continuing attack against Ukraine’s sovereignty, remind us how events far from our shores reverberate at home, with implications for our security, our economy, and our society.
The UK government is under no illusion about the risks to global economic security if stability in the Indo-Pacific is shattered.
We are an island nation and a global trading power, and like Australia, the UK depends on open shipping routes and unimpeded sea lanes.
Free flows of trade, of energy and data – above and below the waterline - must be our continuing focus. Because the security of Indo-Pacific waters has a direct impact on my constituents in Northumberland as well as households across the UK and around the world.
That is why we recommitted our support to a free and open Indo-Pacific in our foreign and defence policy refresh earlier this year.
AUKUS is the UK’s biggest investment in the stability of the Indo-Pacific, and broader global security, for more than half a century.
Its positive impact will be felt in the region, in our relationships with 2 of our oldest and closest allies – but also across defence, industry and academia in all 3 partner countries.
That is why I, and the UK government, want to do all we can to support you, bringing UK industrial and academic expertise honed over 60 years.
Taking on a nuclear-powered fleet is an enormous endeavour, and Western Australia is critical to delivering the availability and sustainment of this new generation of submarines for the Australian Navy, the workforce to support them and the infrastructure to underpin their requirements.
On each of my visits here over the last year, I have met with some of your critical stakeholders. And I am excited to say that on this visit I am really starting to feel the momentum picking up on real partnership building and the investment picture that’s needed.
During this visit, I have had a chance to meet with leaders from Defence West, the Australian Submarine Agency, and Curtin University’s new AUKUS Workforce Alliance.
We have hosted Western Australian leaders in the UK, including your very own Honourable Paul Papalia, to share our knowledge and discuss the most effective relationships which can help you build this new, hugely complex, enterprise with the help of our experienced industrial enterprise.
Now, of course, AUKUS isn’t only about submarines, though quite a lot of it is.
I’ve seen for myself the expertise and advanced capabilities within Western Australia’s defence sector more widely.
From cyber to AI to remote operations, this region is well-positioned to do well from AUKUS Pillar Two. And from increasing collaboration with your UK and US counterparts.
Last week, the AUKUS Defence Ministers, meeting in the US, made a series of major announcements on Pillar Two that will build our mutual deterrence posture to make us stronger and create lots of opportunities for our defence industries.
Joint exercises will continue to improve our ability to offset an opponent’s advantage, and increase the sophistication and impact of our autonomous naval systems.
We will accelerate the development of quantum technologies for positioning, navigation, and timing in military capabilities. This will bolster the resilience of our forces in the most challenging environments, and enhance stealth in undersea capabilities, which will also support the SSN-AUKUS.
We will be collaborating on the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability programme, which will use sites in all three countries to help identify emerging threats in space.
And finally, we are working on cyber security with critical suppliers to the naval supply chain, which will give us greater insight into the threats to AUKUS and how to address them.
The progress we are making proves that pooling resources and expertise, and focussing on interoperability, makes us stronger than we ever could be alone in tackling the present geopolitical strains.
The delivery of AUKUS
Now AUKUS has global significance. But its impacts are also on our local communities. AUKUS will be delivered by Australian, British, and American workers, civilian and uniformed. It will create and retain thousands of jobs, and boost and regenerate industrial heartlands.
The submarine enterprise – Pillar 1 – will bring together world-leading British design, with the very best technology, skills and industrial heft from all 3 partners.
In the UK we have now committed £4 billion of contracts to design and manufacture the first components for SSN-AUKUS. Rolls Royce is expanding its nuclear reactor manufacturing site in Derby, and BAe Systems is working with the town of Barrow to expand its site and skills. Babcock is continuing to invest in modernising their delivery of submarine sustainment and maintenance, which you will want to tap into in order to save time re-inventing that proverbial wheel.
And it’s really good to see a few of those first cohort of workers from Australia embedded with UK and US counterparts, learning from the best and the brightest in our defence industries.
But let’s be under no illusion about the scale of the challenge, especially in relation to the pace required to get to that start line.
The scale and ambition of AUKUS is exciting for the defence industry. But at a time of heightened demand for Ukraine and because of the battles in Israel, and from other states who are bolstering their defences in light of Putin’s aggression, this is going to test the capability and capacity of defence sectors in all three partner nations.
So, we must work together to build those next generations of designers, project managers, engineers, welders, and technicians. As well as the nuclear, cyber and digital experts, who will all play a vital role in being able to deliver AUKUS.
These jobs demand unique skills and qualifications. Many require years of training. Developing that required workforce growth, without draining the existing skills bases, needs planning and investment.
We also need to ensure our people can move easily between our three countries, to enable them to really exchange knowledge, skills and experience. I know that the mobility agreement that we agreed as part of our [UK- Australia FTA]UK-Australia Free Trade last year is going to be important in supporting that flow.
AUKUS is a multi-generational as well as a multi-national endeavour, and it’s going to require us to adapt in order to continue to pull in the same direction.
For the partnership to work to best effect, we need to ensure legal and regulatory frameworks that are complementary. US ITAR controls are being reviewed and legislated right now by US legislators, enabling us to navigate a path through export control regimes, so our industries can work more closely together.
AUKUS really is already changing the way we work together, and we are working to overcome the challenges that arise from it.
In the UK we are investing in our new Nuclear Skills Taskforce, to boost the capacity in our own sectors. We have appointed a cross-government Director-General of AUKUS, to provide that leadership and enhance cooperation.
We must now work trilaterally to ramp up our engagement and delivery of urgent activity with industry. That’s why I was so pleased to hear about the brilliant AUKUS Workforce Alliance created between HII, the US industrial maintenance lead for Virginias, Babcock, the UK’s industrial sustainment lead for UK Astutes and 3 Australian universities – Curtin, University of New South Wales and University of Adelaide. Forward thinking for that long-term skills challenge.
We have established an AUKUS Defence Industry Forum, which will bring together governments and industry from all three countries to help drive forward delivery of advanced capabilities. And we have initiated the AUKUS Defence Investors Network to strengthen financing.
To conclude, the scale of the ambition for the trilateral AUKUS partnership is vast, and there are enormous opportunities and responsibilities for government to enable industry to deliver the policy aims set out.
Delivering across both pillars of the partnership will be an exceptionally complex challenge. But it is a challenge we can overcome by working together.
Because we must keep at the front of our minds at all times why we are doing this – we have a responsibility together to provide defence capabilities which will be capable of maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific – not just for our trading and security interests, but for our neighbours, friends and allies.
Global maritime security is under pressure – our challenge is to assure it in order to:
- facilitate those flows of trade, goods moved about seamlessly day by day from so many Indo-Pacific nations to the world
- to assure those flows of energy, by ship and by pipeline and undersea cables, and
- ensure the safety of undersea data cables which underpin our global financial services
These conversations are critically important to helping policy makers set this enormous project on the right road. So, may I just first of all thank Senator Linda Reynolds for asking whether I would support this – of course I will, you only have to ask - a really important focus!; and to Gordon Flake and the US Asia Centre and Business News for making this opportunity a reality.
So – we’re going to be talking a little later. Please do tell me what you think we need to do to deliver our shared ambitions for AUKUS, drawing on those rich talents of the people and businesses of Western Australia. The simple question is are we going fast enough to enable you to deliver the requirements to sustain and maintain a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines here in Western Australia? Our mission is to reassure allies – and that will be achieved if we assure ourselves we are going hard and fast enough to meet delivery the of the challenge.
Now I know you won’t be shy in sharing your views, that’s one of the things I love about Western Australia!
Thank you.