Los Angeles, 14 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - The US, Britain and Australia have agreed on a concrete timetable to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines to strengthen the Indo-Pacific security alliance, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

Concrete preparations are already beginning with the training of Australian sailors, engineers, technicians and other personnel, Sullivan said, shortly before a meeting between US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

As of 2027, submarines from the US and Britain are to be stationed in Australia on a regular rotating basis.

After the training phase, Australia would initially receive three nuclear-powered submarines from the US in the 2030s, Sullivan continued, with the possibility of increasing to five submarines if required. This will involve a nuclear propulsion system, not nuclear weaponry.

In the long term, all three states eventually want to jointly develop and produce a submarine model that would be built in Australia, with the first model to be ready in the early 2040s.

The three leaders are meeting in San Diego, California, on Monday to discuss the joint security alliance AUKUS.

The alliance - the name of which comes from combining the abbreviations for the three countries - has been in place since 2021 and is intended to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines to strengthen security and military deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.

Security experts see the alliance as directed against a potential threat from China.

But on Monday, US government officials asserted that the alliance's primary goal is to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and to deter and defend the region against rapidly evolving threats to the international order and system.

They did not mention China until asked, but then said in response that stability in the region is increasingly threatened by China, among others.

Sullivan stressed that the alliance was not sending a message to any one country but "will help us continue to serve that important stabilizing role to help continue to safeguard peace and stability in this vital region of the world."

He also said the alliance had been "transparent, predictable" and the "announcement of the plans did not come out of nowhere, but had been prepared over 18 months since the alliance was formed."

"We have indeed consulted closely with allies, partners and countries across the Indo-Pacific region, and we have spoken directly to China to explain to them what AUKUS is and what it is not."

Relations between the US and China are severely strained, over a whole list of contentious issues. Biden's government sees China as the biggest geopolitical challenge and competitor.

For its part, Beijing struck unusually sharp tones in commenting on the US, claiming Washington and the West are trying to prevent China's rise in the world through a strategy of containment and suppression.

Meanwhile, France was enraged by the new alliance because a €56-billion ($59.55-billion) contract to supply submarines to Australia fell through with the AUKUS Pact.

The AUKUS partners announced last year that they also wanted to cooperate more closely in electronic warfare and cybersecurity.

Photo: dpa