Trump signals his support for the OKOS nuclear deal with Australia

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Donald Trump has shown strong support for Aukus, saying the deal to help Australia acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines would strengthen deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific region.

Sitting next to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday, the US president gave his first public support for the trilateral program his predecessor Joe Biden signed with the UK and Australia.

“We’ve been working on this long and hard, and we’re starting this process now, and I think it’s moving very quickly, very well.” Trump He told reporters before his meeting with Albanese.

His comments will be welcomed in Australia amid concerns about the Pentagon’s review of the matter Victims It was launched by Elbridge Colby, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy who has been a vocal skeptic of the submarine deal.

John Phelan, the US Navy secretary who joined the Trump-Albany meeting, said the Pentagon was trying to “improve” the original OKOS framework for the benefit of the US, UK and Australia.

“We are really trying… to make it better and clear up some of the ambiguity that was surrounding the previous agreement. So the agreement has to be a win-win for everyone.”

But Trump later added: “There should be no further clarifications because we are just, we are now moving full steam ahead.”

Under the Aukus agreement, the United States will sell a number of Virginia-class submarines to Australia, while the three countries work on a new ship called SSN Aukus that will not enter service until the end of the next decade.

Critics of OKOS in the United States, including Colby, have expressed concern about Washington selling the submarines at a time when American shipyards are struggling to produce enough to meet US requirements.

Trump and Albanian It also signed a rare earths deal which will see Australia help the US process the minerals. As part of the deal, within six months both countries will contribute at least $1 billion to projects in their countries that will produce rare earths for buyers in the United States and Australia.

Canberra has offered the country’s rare earth resources as a bargaining chip in its talks with the United States, which is looking to secure more supplies of vital minerals from outside China for its defense and energy industries.

The agreement comes two weeks after Beijing unveiled a comprehensive system to control exports of important minerals, which angered the United States. Trump threatened to impose additional 100% tariffs on imports from China in response.

The president is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea on October 29 when the leaders attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Trump said on Monday that he believed he and Xi would agree to a “great deal” during their meeting in South Korea.

“It would be a great trade deal, it would be great for both countries, and it would be great for the whole world,” Trump said.

He said he believed “China will come to the table and make a very fair deal” to avoid what the US president said would amount to a total US tariff rate of 147 percent on imports from China.

But he also repeated his threat to impose additional tariffs and other countermeasures on China if the two sides cannot reach a settlement.

Trump said: “They threatened us with rare earth elements, and I threatened them with tariffs, but I can also threaten them with many other things like planes… because they can’t get spare parts for their planes.”

He also said he would likely discuss the Taiwan issue with Xi. China wants Trump to express his opposition to Taiwan independence, which may constitute a shift away from the traditional line that says the United States does not support independence.

“When I’m in South Korea with President Xi, we’re going to talk about a lot of things,” Trump said. “I assume that’s going to be one of the things, but I’m not going to talk about that now.”

Taiwanese officials are concerned about Trump’s upcoming meeting with Xi because of concerns that he might agree to a deal that undermines US support for Taiwan.