The Australian government is to spend nearly $400 billion over the next three decades to buy a fleet of nuclear submarines, as part of the new AUKUS defence and security pact.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined US president Joe Biden and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego yesterday to officially sign the agreement.
From as early as 2027, it will see four US and one UK submarine rotating through western Australia, and eventually there will also be a base on the east coast.
China and Russia have denounced the defence pact.
Russia says the pact would bring years of confrontation to Asia and the Chinese foreign ministry says the three countries were on a path of "error and danger".
Victoria University professor of strategic studies Robert Ayson is across the AUKUS agreement.
He spoke to Corin Dann.
