The update to AUKUS was signed off during AUSMIN meetings in the US, the annual talks between Australian and US defence and foreign ministers.
Under the agreement, Australia will be formally permitted to take in nuclear material for the procurement of nuclear submarines.
The terms of the original deal, inked in March 2023, only allowed for the exchange of information about nuclear propulsion.
Defence Minister Richard Marles says the fresh agreement is a “foundational document” for the trilateral security pact.
“It provides the legal underpinning of what we agreed with the US and UK under the banner of AUKUS,” he said on Friday.
“It also affirms that in walking down this path, we will meet our international obligations in terms of non-proliferation.”
As part of the AUKUS agreement, Australia will acquire three Virginia-class vessels from the US before Australian-built nuclear submarines begin operating.
The $368 billion plan will bring eight nuclear-powered subs into service by the 2050s.
But the deal has come under renewed criticism from former prime minister Paul Keating, who says Australia is losing its autonomy by being part of it.
“AUKUS is really about, in American terms, the military control of Australia. I mean what’s happened? Our policy is likely to turn Australia into the 51st state of the United States,” he told ABC’s 7.30 program.
“The only threat likely to come for us is because we have an aggressive ally because of AUKUS.”
Marles dismissed the criticism, saying Australia had gone through an extensive process in assessing the security situation in the region.
“It’s a line but it’s nothing more than that and it’s not a fair characterisation of what we’re doing,” he said.
The technology-sharing as part of the agreement will include the nuclear reactors required to operate the submarines, Marles said.
However, the agreement signed did not mean other AUKUS partners would be able to use Australia to store their own nuclear waste.
“There’s no circumstance in which we would be taking waste from any other country,” he said.
“We will be responsible for our own nuclear waste and that will involve the disposal of the spent nuclear reactors, and we’re going through a process in respect of that.”
Australia would not be in a position to dispose of any nuclear material in the country until the 2050s, Marles said.
Details of the agreement were laid out in a letter to US Congress by President Joe Biden.
The agreement had also come under fire by Greens defence spokesman David Shoebridge, who said levels of secrecy about the terms of the deal was concerning.
“What is so damaging to the Albanese government with this new deal that it has to be kept secret from the Australian public?” he said.
“There are real concerns the secret understanding includes commitments binding us to the US in the event they go to war with China in return for getting nuclear submarines.”
It comes as opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie called for the WA government to include a minister dedicated to AUKUS in its cabinet.
– AAP
