Worry over Aukus review easing, but scars remainspublished at 15:38 BST
15:38 BST
Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
Image source, Getty Images
When the Trump administration in June announced it was reviewing a landmark defence pact with Australia and the UK, it caused jolts of concern in Canberra.
Outwardly, the Albanese government hasn’t wavered in professing its confidence that the Aukus agreement – which would give Australia cutting-edge nuclear submarine technology in exchange for more help policing China in the Asia-Pacific – will go ahead.
It is natural for a new government to review their predecessor’s decisions, it said.
But the White House’s isolationist rhetoric – along with the fact that the US is facing challenges in its own submarine supply – made some nervous that the deal may be cancelled or rewritten, something which threatens to leave Australia vulnerable with an increasingly outdated submarine fleet and trouble brewing on its doorstep.
It’s been months now and the result of the review still hasn’t been announced – so Australia has quietly held off on the next payment due to the US, having already tipped $1bn (A$1.6bn, £774,000) into the scheme.
But worry in Canberra has been easing, says Sam Roggeveen, who leads the security programme at Australia’s Lowy Institute think tank. US officials have reportedly privately reassured their Australian counterparts that the deal will go ahead.
The anxiety this episode has injected into the country’s relationship with America though, will be harder to settle.
“The Trump administration is clearly fraying some of those long-held, unexamined beliefs about the reliability of the United States as an ally,” he told the BBC on Monday.