The Nuclear Nonproliferation Implications of the AUKUS Deal

February 7, 2022

In January of 2022, Gustavo Zlauvinen, President-designate of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference, announced that because of the covid outbreak in New York the review conference would be delayed until the summer of 2022. One issue that is sure to come up at the conference will be the nuclear proliferation implications of the recently announced AUKUS nuclear submarine deal with Australia. Critics of the deal, which includes China, contend that transferring nuclear submarine technology to Australia undermines the NPT. AUKUS supporters reject these objections.

What are the deal’s nuclear weapons proliferation implications? What worrisome proliferation precedents might it set? Can the deal be conditioned to prevent such precedents? Are there conditions that could be added that could strengthen the NPT?

These and other questions were addressed at NPEC and the Hudson Institute’s Pax-Pacifica and AUKUS workshop “The Nuclear Nonproliferation Implications of the AUKUS Deal” on February 7th. Robert Einhorn, former Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of State gave a brief presentation. This workshop also reviewed the latest AUKUS-related developments.