US drops technology export bans for Australia and United Kingdom
The Biden administration has lifted most bans on defense technology sharing with Australia and the United Kingdom in order to fast-track the development of emerging weapons technologies among the allies.
“These critical reforms will revolutionize defense trade, innovation and cooperation, enabling collaboration at the speed and scale required to meet our challenging strategic circumstances,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles said Thursday.
The agreement is designed to establish “an export license-free environment,” as Australian officials put it, in conjunction with the implementation of the AUKUS deal between the three allies. Although the Australian navy’s acquisition of U.S. and British nuclear submarine technology has dominated the international spotlight, “Pillar Two” of the AUKUS deal also aims to harness the advanced technology sectors of each country in a bid to win an emerging technology race with China.
“As tensions increase, and conflicts continue around the globe, our partnerships with our allies are critically important,” British Defense Secretary John Healey said Thursday. “This is a breakthrough that will allow our three nations to deepen our collaboration on defence technology and trade. Our new government will reinforce the UK’s role in AUKUS to boost Britain’s military capabilities and economic growth.”
President Joe Biden’s team regards emerging technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence as “the strategic high ground,” as Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell put it recently. The pressure to outpace China, which is pouring money into a military modernization project powered in part by stolen from Western companies, spurred officials in Washington, London, and Canberra to put a premium on Pillar Two of the deal.
“We need to build an innovation system … across our three countries which stimulates the defense industry base across our three countries,” Marles said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event last week. “Each of us have our own innovation systems which are focused on our own domestic defense industry bases. How we get value add here is by really kind of getting those much more harmonized.”
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