Iran Press/ Europe: The new AUKUS alliance, launched last September, prompted Australia to cancel a contract for a conventional French submarine in favour of a nuclear submarine program supported by the United States and Britain, damaging relations with French President Emmanuel Macron, Reuters reported.
In a joint statement, AUKUS leaders Johnson, U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said they were pleased with the progress of the programme for conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, and that the allies would co-operate in other areas too.
"We also committed today to commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities," the statement said.
The United States and Australia already have a hypersonic weapon programme called SCIFiRE, an acronym for Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment. British officials said that though Britain would not join that programme at this point, the three countries would work together on research and development in the area to expand their options.
Biden's administration is investing in the research and development of hypersonic missiles, which travel at five times the speed of sound, as Russia's February special operation in Ukraine has intensified concerns about European security.
The leaders of Britain, the United States and Australia said they also reaffirmed their commitment to a "free and open Indo-Pacific".
China had earlier said a new defense and security pact between the UK, U.S. and Australia would damage peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
China had slammed nuclear submarine cooperation between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, calling it a grave threat to regional peace and stability.
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