Australia Invests 8 Billion Dollars to Build a Defense Base, Allowing U.S. Nuclear Submarines to Be Stationed There

Australia to spend 8 billion dollars to build a base, "US nuclear submarines can enter"

According to Australia's ABC and Bloomberg on September 14, Australian Prime Minister Albanese is scheduled to announce later that day that Australia will invest 12 billion Australian dollars (about 8 billion US dollars) to build a defense center near Perth, used for building naval vessels and docking nuclear submarines. At the same time, Australia is seeking to strengthen the support from the United States for the "AUKUS" trilateral security partnership project.

On the same day, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defense of Australia, Richard Marles, revealed in an ABC program called "Insiders" that this funding will be used to develop the Henderson Defense Area located south of Perth in Western Australia, as well as to build surface ships and maintenance facilities for the Australian Defense Force.

Marles revealed that under the AUKUS plan, he expects the facilities at the Henderson Defense Area to be used by the US military for submarine maintenance work. He told ABC: "This is an opportunity... by using Australia, by using the group of people we are currently cultivating who are researching nuclear-powered submarines, the time that the US fleet can stay at sea will be greatly increased."

Marles said that the total estimated cost of the project over the next ten years is 25 billion Australian dollars (about 16.6 billion US dollars), and currently Australia's defense spending accounts for 2.8% of its GDP.

"When you take into account our current investment, compared to the situation we inherited when the Australian Labor Party took office in 2022, this means that defense spending will increase by nearly 7 billion Australian dollars (about 4.65 billion US dollars) over the next ten years," Marles claimed: "This represents the largest increase in defense spending in Australia's history during peacetime."

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1843249689949188/

Statement: The article represents the personal views of the author.