Australia has invited the United States to use its planned Henderson defence facility to maintain its fleet of nuclear submarines, which could ease Trump administration fears that America has too few of the boats in the water at any one time to sell them under the AUKUS pact.

The federal government announced on Saturday it would spend $12 billion on building the Henderson precinct in Perth , including docks for nuclear submarine maintenance, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tries to lock in a meeting with US President Donald Trump later this month.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday the US would choose where to maintain their submarines “but we absolutely anticipate that this will be a facility which is available for them”.

Albanese will travel to the United States later

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