Australia, UK Eye New Treaty in Next Step Toward Creating AUKUS Nuclear Submarine

‘As AUKUS partners, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an increasingly unstable world,’ UK defence secretary.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey (C), US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (L), and Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles ahead of the AUKUS Defence Ministers Meeting at Old Royal Naval College in London, England on Sept. 26, 2024. Kin Cheung - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Australia and the United Kingdom are set to negotiate a bilateral defence treaty under the auspices of the AUKUS defence pact between the United States, UK, and Australia.

As defence ministers from the three countries meet outside the United States for the first time in London, negotiations continue on a new UK-Australia defence treaty, which UK Defence Secretary John Healey says will define the defence relationship for decades.