CEBU, Philippines — Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the country remains on track to acquire its first nuclear-powered submarine from the United States, Reuters reported from Cebu, where defence ministers are gathered for the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus).

Source: Reuters via KTWB

"We're working at a pace to delivering the optimal pathway to Australia acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability," Marles said in an interview, according to Reuters. He said Australia is on track to receive Virginia-class submarines from the US from around 2030 under the AUKUS submarine partnership, which also includes Britain.

The Hegseth meeting in Cebu

Marles met US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings in the Philippines, describing the alliance "as important today as it's ever been", Reuters reported. The Cebu meeting itself was independently confirmed in ANI's reporting of the ADMM-Plus sidelines, which carried Hegseth's own post on X about his meeting with Marles: "It was a pleasure to meet with Australian Deputy Prime Minister Marles. Together, we are optimizing the Alliance to strengthen deterrence and deliver results."

Source: ANI via NewKerala

Reuters also noted that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in August that the defence pact remained "full steam ahead" — the position Marles's Cebu remarks restated on Wednesday, with no change to the early-2030s timeline he described.

What is solid

  • Marles publicly said in Cebu on October 28 that Australia remains on track for Virginia-class submarines from the US from around 2030 under AUKUS, in remarks reported by Reuters.
  • Marles met Hegseth on the sidelines of the ASEAN defence meetings in Cebu; Hegseth's own X post about meeting Marles was carried by ANI.
  • AUKUS partners are the United States, Britain and Australia, and Albanese said in August the pact remained 'full steam ahead'.

What is only claimed

  • 'On track' is Marles's assessment of the programme, not an independent audit; no delivery contract detail, boat number or revised schedule was announced in the reports checked.

The remarks land in an Indo-Pacific week dominated by the Cebu defence gathering — where India's Rajnath Singh also reviewed the India-US defence framework with Hegseth — and they signal that, whatever questions allies have raised about US commitments this year, Canberra is publicly betting its submarine future on Washington delivering on the AUKUS pathway from around 2030.