As we wrote, Australia beat France yesterday in a massive $90 billion submarine deal after unilaterally terminating a contract in 2016 and replacing it with a new agreement with the US and UK.
The agreement, called Aukus, was announced in a virtual press conference by US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Their goal is likely to be to reduce China’s influence in the South China Sea. Although China was not specifically mentioned, the three leaders have repeatedly referred to regional security issues, which they claim are increasing “significantly”.
From this ad, The Guardian Stab Very interesting details. According to him, US President Joe Biden was embarrassed for a moment, forgetting the name of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Instead, I drop a rather strange title that reads:
And I want to thank this Australian man. Thank you so much!
A little later, he finally remembered and named the Australian Prime Minister by name, yet the official completely blew up the internet, quickly becoming the hashtag #ThatFellaDownUnder.
While the agreement is by no means unimportant, it means that the US and UK provide Australia with the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, but they also share other underwater technologies and the Internet.
