"Some have asked about our new partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia known as AUKUS. Through this partnership, Australia will acquire submarines. I want to emphasize that these submarines will be nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed," Blinken said at the NPT Review Conference at the United Nations in New York.
"Other countries have this kind of submarines. And these will adhere to the highest safety and Non Proliferation standards under the NPT. We're working very closely with the IEA to make sure that that's the case," he added.
The previous Australian government abandoned the $64 billion program to acquire up to 12 French-designed submarines. Instead, Australia reached an agreement with the United Kingdom and the United States within a trilateral security pact dubbed AUKUS. Under the pact, Washington and London pledged to help Canberra acquire nuclear-powered submarines. Former French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the move a "stab in the back."