US president Donald Trump’s momentary unfamiliarity with the abbreviation Aukus, the trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK, and the US, during a meeting with UK prime minister Keir Starmer seems not to have affected one of its key partners.
When a reporter asked Mr Trump if Aukus was discussed during the meeting, the US president responded: “What does that mean?” before adding that discussions would take place.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese downplayed the moment, attributing it to the complexity of diplomatic acronyms. “There’s a lot of acronyms in this business and, you know, we all get thrown at them from time to time,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Friday.
“[Trump] went on to speak about the really important and positive relationship with Australia. That’s consistent with the discussions that I’ve had with President Trump,” he said.
Australia made an initial $500m payment in February under the Aukus deal, which will see it acquire nuclear submarines through a partnership with the US and UK.
Mr Trump and Mr Albanese had previously discussed Aukus and potential tariff exemptions for Australia in a February call.
During the press conference at the White House, a British reporter asked Mr Trump: “With the Australians and the Brits, will you be discussing Aukus, sir?”
Mr Trump responded: “What does that mean?”
The reporter clarified: “Aukus: the Australia-US defence alliance.”
“We will be discussing that,” Mr Trump said gesturing towards Mr Starmer beside him. “We’ve had another great relationship, and you have, too, with Australia. We’ve had a very good relationship with Australia.”
Mr Starmer added, “yes”.
Australia’s employment minister Murray Watt also downplayed concerns over the US president’s unfamiliarity with Aukus. “I wouldn’t make too much about a president with a very full plate not remembering one acronym. I think all of us go through that sort of thing at different times,” he told ABC Radio on Friday.
“You’ll see there that he was able to say very quickly about the strength of the relationship with Australia and the fact that Aukus will be something he’ll be discussing with the British prime minister.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton told Nine’s Today programme: “Not everyone you know gets the acronyms, and all the rest of it, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the president strongly supports the alliance between our three countries and strongly supports Aukus.”
