USSC CEO Dr Michael Green appears on Q + A with Jack Tame to discuss the current strategic environment and New Zealand's role in regional security.
Asked about the AUKUS pact, Dr Green says that "on the one hand it's a very significant agreement. The US and the UK are transferring our most advanced capabilities to Australia, nuclear propulsion for submarines, something the US has only done once before in 1957 to the Royal Navy, and that the US probably would not have done 5 years ago."
"On the other hand, it's not a treaty, it's just an agreement to develop submarines together... and in Pillar II to work on emerging technologies like quantum and cyber and hypersonics. So in that sense it's not like ANZUS or NATO, there's no security commitment in this. So it's both more and less than meets the eye."