AUKUS tech sharing ‘does not undermine sovereignty,’ says Marles

Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, has hinted that an announcement charting the next phase of AUKUS – a three-way partnership between his country, the United Kingdom and the United States, and which includes sharing of defence technology outside of the scope of the usual multilateral export control regimes – is imminent.

On 9 February, in anticipation of further details, Marles said that, while ‘some argue that Australia’s reliance on our partners for the acquisition of naval nuclear-propulsion technology gives rise to a dependence that undermines Australia’s sovereignty…the reality is that almost all of Australia’s high-end capability is developed in cooperation with our partners… And that dramatically enhanced capability dramatically enhances our sovereignty.’

Controls in the plural

AUKUS has been often touted as a, example of a plurilateral export control initiative tailored to the needs of individual countries, where they cannot be met by the multilateral regimes, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement, Missile Technology Control Regime.

Writing on UK export control developments in the February 2022 issue of WorldECR, Daniel Lund and Roger Matthews of the law firm Dentons observed,

‘Any such alliances would not (and should not) replace the existing multilateral systems, but rather occupy the policy space between these regimes and the prospect of countries operating alone to further security interests. For instance, the trilateral pact between the UK, US, and Australia (‘AUKUS’) concerning the development of nuclear submarine technology is a nascent example as to how such like-minded technology focused groupings could work going forward. Whilst not an explicit export controls framework, AUKUS is notable because cooperation is likely to include joint efforts on emerging security and defence capabilities, with an initial focus on cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.’