South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas met with the UK’s Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on Friday to discuss defence collaboration opportunities arising from the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) military agreement.
Darren Jones, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s number two, also toured a number of key defence sites around Adelaide as part of his trip to Australia, which also included visits to Sydney and Canberra.
He was accompanied by the newly minted State Development Minister Chris Picton who told InDaily that Jones was in town to be briefed on preparations for AUKUS and it was reassuring to see the United Kingdom’s continued “interest and support”.
Billions of dollars will be spent by the federal and state governments on the AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the United States, that forms the backbone to having five nuclear submarines to be built in South Australia under an agreement with the UK.
In February, the federal government announced that at least $30 billion would be spent on the construction yard for the submarines in Osborne and pledged a $3.9 billion down payment to secure the Submarine Construction Yard’s future.
But concerns remain around whether the United States’ would deliver five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia as ordered under the AUKUS pact.
Jones and his delegation toured BAE Systems and ASC’s Osborne shipbuilding facility where much of the nation’s future defence building is set to take place, including the construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement.
He also visited TAFE SA and the Tonsley Innovation Precinct with Picton, as well as Flinders University, “where they have the factory of the future”.
“The delegation was impressed in terms of the cooperation and the work that’s happened so far on AUKUS,” Picton told InDaily.
“We know there’s a lot more that needs to happen.
There’s a long way to get to the....
