U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey met with Australian Foreign Minister Richard Marles in Geelong, Australia (across the bay from Melbourne) on July 26, where they signed the bilateral Nuclear-Powered Submarine Partnership and Collaboration Treaty, henceforth to be known as the Geelong Treaty. “The Geelong Treaty is a historic agreement, the commitment for the next 50 years of U.K.-Australian bilateral defense cooperation under AUKUS Pillar I,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in a press release. “The Geelong Treaty will enable comprehensive cooperation on the design, build, operation, sustainment, and disposal of our SSN-AUKUS submarines. It will support the development of the personnel, workforce, infrastructure and regulatory systems required for Australia’s SSN-AUKUS program, as well as support port visits and the rotational presence of a U.K. Astute-class [nuclear-powered attack] submarine at HMAS Stirling (the naval base in Perth, about 2,700 km to the west of Geelong) under Submarine Rotational Force—West.
“The Treaty builds on the strong foundation of trilateral cooperation between Australia, the U.K. and the United States, advancing the shared objectives of the AUKUS partnership. It will enable the development of SSN-AUKUS and resilient trilateral supply chains,” the release says.
During an appearance in Darwin, yesterday, aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, a reporter from Britain’s The Telegraph asked Healey what the U.K. is doing to help Taiwan prepare for potential escalation from China. “If we have to fight, as we have done in the past, Australia and the U.K. are nations that will fight together,” he replied. “We exercise together and by exercising together and being more ready to fight, we deter better together.” The Telegraph described his comments as “among the most robust from a British representative on the subject of possible engagement in a future war in the region.”
Healey, however, hastened to add that he was speaking in “general terms,” and said the U.K. would prefer to see any disputes in the Indo-Pacific resolved “peacefully” and “diplomatically.” He added: “We secure peace through strength, and our strength comes from our allies.”
The Telegraph notes that Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who accompanied Healey to Darwin, has previously said that the U.K. plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait. “We have a direct interest in the international rules, the freedom of the seas, the freedom of navigation and the stability and security in the Indo-Pacific,” said Healey.
The Telegraph adds: The U.K. does not comment on its ships’ future movements, but many suspect the HMS Prince of Wales will transit through the contested Strait as it sails to its next destinations in South Korea and Japan.
