Marles denies sinister meaning in AUKUS ‘political commitments’

The Albanese government is hosing down anti-AUKUS activists’ concerns that a new agreement with the US and UK would result in Australia storing foreign nuclear waste or secretly commit Canberra to automatically backing Washington in a war on China.

The government will table a new treaty-level agreement in parliament next week that will underpin the AUKUS pact to transfer nuclear-powered submarine technology to Australia’s navy. It will then be scrutinised by parliament’s treaties committee.