Australia announced on Saturday that it will spend A$12 Billion ($8 Billion) to build defence facilities in Western Australia for the delivery of submarines under AUKUS Nuclear Submarine Deal.

AUKUS, the pact signed by Australia, Britain, and the U.S.A. in 2021, will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines within the next decade in order to counter China's Indo-Pacific ambitions. The Trump administration will be conducting a formal evaluation of the AUKUS pact.

The Defence Minister Richard Marles stated that the precinct is "critical for Australia's shipbuilding industry and will support continuous naval shipbuilding throughout Western Australia as well as Australia's nuclear powered submarine pathway".

Marles, in a press release, said that the centre-left Labor Government continues to "increase defence spending to unprecedented levels in order to deliver capabilities Australia needs".

The company invested A$127m ($84m) in Henderson Shipyard, near Perth last year. It said that billions of dollars will be spent on the facility over the next twenty years to turn it into a maintenance hub for the AUKUS sub fleet.

According to the government, around 10,000 jobs will be supported by the precinct, which is also building the new landing craft and general-purpose frigates of the Australian navy.

Washington will sell to Australia several Virginia-class, nuclear-powered subs. Britain and Australia will then build a new AUKUS class submarine.

Elbridge Colby a senior Pentagon official and vocal critic of AUKUS reviewed the agreement in July. Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of this congressional committee for strategic competitiveness with China expressed their support for AUKUS.

Australia, which signed a treaty in the same month with Britain for a 50-year cooperation on AUKUS has said it is confident that the pact will be implemented. $1 = 1.5044 Australian Dollars (Reporting and editing by William Mallard in Sydney)

(source: Reuters)