Fresh confidence around the future of the nuclear submarine program in South Australia has been injected into the state, after US officials spoke positively of the AUKUS program overnight.

The program – a trilateral agreement between the United States, Australia and United Kingdom – would see South Australia build conventionally-armed, nuclear-powered submarines at Osborne.

At a meeting with the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House, US President Donald Trump publicly backed the AUKUS agreement.

The two leaders also signed an agreement on rare earth and critical minerals during a bilateral lunch in the White House cabinet room.

“We’ve worked on this long and hard, and we’re starting that process right now, and I think it’s moving along very rapidly, very well,

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