UK, US and Australian defence ministers in London for AUKUS meeting

UK Defence Secretary John Healey met with his American and Australian counterparts Lloyd Austin and Richard Marles gathered in London ahead of an AUKUS meeting.

The three-way alliance brings together the United States, Britain and Australia, bolstering military ties. Under the Aukus agreement, the US and the UK agreed to collaborate on providing Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to ramp up Canberra’s defense capabilities.

Initially, Washington will sell a fleet of Virginia-class submarines to Canberra with the first of the vessels expected to arrive in the early 2030s.The UK and Australia will collaborate on designing and building a new model of nuclear-powered submarines known as the SSN-Aukus, with the first expected to be ready in the early 2040s.