Starmer confident Aukus pact will proceed despite Trump review

Ellen Milligan, Bloomberg News on Jun 15, 2025

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U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he has no doubts that the Aukus defense pact with the U.S. and Australia will continue despite President Donald Trump’s review of the initiative.

The Pentagon last week launched a review of the Joe Biden-era deal to develop nuclear-powered submarines with Australia and the U.K., as part of Trump’s push for allies to take more responsibility for their own defense and ensure the U.S. has enough warships of its own. The pact was signed in 2021 to counter China’s military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.

“It’s a really important project, so I don’t have any doubt that this will progress,” Starmer told reporters on his way to the Group of Seven meeting in Canada, where he is expected to meet both Trump and Australian leader Anthony Albanese. “It’s not unusual for an incoming government to do a review of a project like that.”

The U.K. announced earlier this month that it would build as many as 12 new submarines as part of the partnership. If the U.S. ends up abandoning the pact, it would deal a major blow to Australia and the U.K. The Aukus deal represented the first time that the U.S. agreed to share its highly sensitive sub technology since 1965.