The United States has become an unreliable ally under Donald Trump’s presidency and the Albanese government should urgently develop a plan B for Australia’s submarine fleet in case its AUKUS vision falls apart, Admiral Chris Barrie, the former head of the Australian Defence Force, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have endorsed the AUKUS pact, but Trump’s decision not to spare Australia from steel and aluminium tariffs has raised fresh questions about the importance he places on the US-Australia alliance.
Elbridge Colby, Trump’s pick to be head of policy at the Pentagon, last week told the US Senate he had concerns about the US industrial base’s ability to support the plan to sell between three and five Virginia-class submarines to Australia.
Asked about AUKUS on February 28, the president did not immediately knowwhat the acronym stood for.
Barrie, a retired senior naval officer who led the Defence Force from 1998 to 2002, said he had watched with alarm as Trump has upended the US’s traditional alliances since his return to the White House.
“The first six weeks of this administration has shown that no agreement is secure,” he told this masthead. “We’re in a whole new world, and we need to recalibrate Australia’s strategic priorities to reflect the fact that the US is no longer a reliable ally.”
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