By Tom Crowley and Jesmine Cheong, ABC
Photo: AFP / Jim Watson
It's the largest looming question for Australia's defence policy: what will the Trump administration mean for AUKUS and the nuclear-powered submarines it hopes to acquire?
But the US president has his own question about AUKUS, and it's a simpler one: "What does that mean?"
That was his response, word for word, when asked by a reporter if the alliance had been discussed in his White House meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
When the reporter explained what it was, Trump added:
"We'll be discussing that. We've had another great relationship, and you [Starmer] have too with Australia. Yeah, we've had a very good relationship with Australia."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was on Nine's Today, and was asked whether Trump's fuzziness made Australia vulnerable.
His answer: a firm "no".
"Not everyone gets the acronyms and all the rest of it, but there's no doubt in my mind the president strongly supports the alliance between our three countries and strongly supports AUKUS, he's stated that previously."
UK foreign policy lead for the global security think-tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute Sophia Gaston says she's not worried.
"I think certainly President Trump likes to get all the information and then mull over things and then take a position," she says.
"Certainly we know that the people around Trump are quite supportive of AUKUS.
"His Secretary of State Rubio described AUKUS as a 'blueprint for allied cooperation.'"
Asked about Trump's comments, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there's "a lot of acronyms in this business and we all get thrown at them from time to time".
"I've seen President Trump 's comments together with Keir Starmer, he wanted to speak about the really important and positive relationship with Australia.
"That is consistent with the discussions that I've had with President Trump that included, of course, talking about AUKUS which we spoke about during our discussions."
- ABC
