Defence Minister Richard Marles said in June that if war broke out between the US and China, Australia would inevitably be involved. This focus on US primacy is the basis of the AUKUS agreement, Pillar One of which provides for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs). The first is that Australia’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific are different from the United States’. The selection of designs for Australia’s SSNs was clearly based on US and British interests rather than our own. In any renegotiation of AUKUS, Australia possesses substantial agency because of America’s need for secure bases.