{"id":528007,"date":"2026-04-13T05:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T05:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T05:46:20","slug":"keep-calm-and-carry-on-top-ranking-uk-mp-drops-into-sa-for-subs-talks-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/528007\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep calm and carry on: Top-ranking UK MP drops into SA for subs talks – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas met with the UK\u2019s Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on Friday to discuss defence collaboration opportunities arising from the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) military agreement.<\/p>\n

Darren Jones, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

He was accompanied by the newly minted State Development Minister Chris Picton who told\u00a0InDaily that Jones was in town to be briefed on preparations for AUKUS and it was reassuring to see the United Kingdom\u2019s continued \u201cinterest and support\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In February, the federal government announced that at least $30 billion would be spent on the construction yard for the submarines in Osborne <\/a>and pledged a $3.9 billion down payment to secure the Submarine Construction Yard\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

But concerns remain around whether the United States\u2019 would deliver five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines<\/a>\u00a0to Australia as ordered under the AUKUS pact.<\/p>\n

Jones and his delegation toured BAE Systems and ASC\u2019s Osborne shipbuilding facility where much of the nation\u2019s future defence building is set to take place, including the construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS agreement.<\/p>\n

He also visited TAFE SA and the Tonsley Innovation Precinct with Picton, as well as Flinders University, \u201cwhere they have the factory of the future\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe delegation was impressed in terms of the cooperation and the work that\u2019s happened so far on AUKUS,\u201d Picton told InDaily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s a lot more that needs to happen. There\u2019s a long way to get to the point of manufacturing nuclear-powered submarines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we had this high-level delegation visit Adelaide is certainly a positive sign in terms of the interest and support from the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Jones attended the Collingwood v Fremantle match as part of Gather Round over the weekend, taking to Instagram to say \u201cwe see eye to eye with Aussies on many things \u2013 coffee, Kylie, BBQs \u2013 but not the rules of football!\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jones toured SA defence facilities with Picton while in Adelaide. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n

The visit comes as military relationships between Australia and the United States teeter, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly calling out Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for not supporting his nation\u2019s war efforts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Today, Albanese confirmed Australia will not join the United States\u2019 efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve received no requests\u2026 they\u2019ve made this announcement overnight and they\u2019ve done that in a unilateral way,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been asked, and I don\u2019t expect that we will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked today by InDaily if the AUKUS agreement was still secure considering the global uncertainty and militarisation, Picton said: \u201cWe believe it absolutely is\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difficulties that we see across the world in terms of global security only heighten the need for the development of AUKUS and the partnership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs well as doing our best to explain Australian Rules Football, we hosted a number of our defence companies at the football with the delegation. That\u2019s another good opportunity for us to strengthen our links there.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom both countries\u2019 perspective, there\u2019s a really strong partnership and agreed need for AUKUS.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Australia was unlikely to bring forward production of its own nuclear-powered submarines, Picton said: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a second to waste in terms of preparation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Premier Peter Malinauskas (left) and State Development Minister Chris Picton (right) hosted Darren Jones (centre) at Gather Round. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I haven\u2019t visited Barrow-in-Furness in the United Kingdom, from all accounts the scale of what is undertaken there is enormous and the development of what\u2019s going to happen at Osborne is equally huge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Minister, formerly the Health Minister, said he was considering a trip to the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly talking about various needs to connect with parts of the world, both with the trade and investment side of things, but also in terms of defence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll consider that through the course of the next couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas met with the UK\u2019s Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on Friday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-528007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}