Albanese was said to have reiterated Labor’s strong support from the AUKUS pact,which had placed a major strain on diplomatic relations with France last year after Paris accused all three nations of conspiring behind its back to terminate Canberra’s $90 billion deal.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Johnson told Albanese that he thought the trilateral grouping could go “further together in other domains”,where both countries could “collaborate for the global good”.
The three-way strategic defence alliance is to initially build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines,but also to work together in the Indo-Pacific region,where the rise of China is seen as an increasing threat,and develop wider technologies.
However,diplomatic sources have toldThe Sydney Morning Herald andThe Age that the British government had been wary that an incoming Albanese government might be lukewarm towards the alliance,given its controversy and the previous government’s missteps,and had privately raised the idea of broadening the pact to include other areas such as energy security before the election result.
Johnson was said to have congratulated the new Australian Prime Minister leader “fulsomely” and said he looked forward to strengthening the relationship between the two nations “even further”.
One of the leading advocates for more action on climate change,Johnson had pushed former prime minister Scott Morrison hard before last year’s Glasgow climate summit to adopt a carbon-neutral target by 2050.