Leaders | Nuclear submarines

The AUKUS pact is a model for Western allies

Pooling talent and resources is the only way to match China’s heft

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shakes hands with President Joe Biden during a news conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, at Naval Base Point Loma, Monday, March 13, 2023, in San Diego, as they unveil, AUKUS, a trilateral security pact between Australia, Britain, and the United States. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) — Image: AP

Mar 16th 2023

Australian and British sailors have been visiting American submarines for decades. It would be hard to imagine closer allies than their three countries. But as those sailors approached the engine room they would come to a watertight door that even they could not pass. For beyond it lay one of America’s most sacrosanct technologies, shared only with Britain in 1958: nuclear propulsion. The aukus pact throws that door open, pointing the way to a new phase in the West’s competition with China.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “In deep”