San Diego ― President Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia and the United Kingdom on Monday announced that Australia will purchase nuclear-powered attack submarines from the U.S. to modernize its fleet amid growing concern about China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.

Biden flew to San Diego for talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on an 18-month-old nuclear partnership given the acronym AUKUS ― for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The partnership, announced in 2021, has promised additional work for General Dynamics’ Electric Boat division in Groton, a longtime leader in the design and construction of nuclear submarines.

“We look forward to working with the Navy and our industry partners to use our knowledge and expertise to support Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines and the development of that country’s shipbuilding infrastructure,” EB President Kevin Graney said in a statement issued after the president’s announcement. “The AUKUS agreement underscores the critical role submarines play in the defense of our nation and our allies and calls attention to the importance of continuing to grow our submarine industrial base here in the United States.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, the second-highest ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee and founder of the bipartisan AUKUS Working Group, joined the three heads of state for Monday‘s announcement.

“Today marks a seminal moment in America’s history, and in the deep, enduring democratic values we share with the U.K., Australia, and all of our allies who uphold peace, prosperity, and the international rule of law,” Courtney said in a statement. “The presence of all three nations’ heads of state to reveal this plan and declare their determination to successfully execute its many components is a strong statement of commitment to our alliance, which I look forward to upholding in the U.S. Congress on a bipartisan basis.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., released a statement in response to the announcement.

“The agreement is a global investment in Connecticut’s submarine workers, whose skill and dedication are unmatched worldwide,” he said. “American shipbuilders and sailors will be critical to making AUKUS work ― both constructing Virginia class submarines and training our allies to operate and maintain them. The Navy now must work harder to expand and extend our submarine workforce, as we continue to build two Virginia-class boats a year as well as the Australian submarines.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also commented.

“Australia’s purchase of up to five Virginia-class submarines more than justifies Electric Boat’s plans to hire almost 30,000 high-skilled jobs in the next five years,” he said. “This is a once-in-a-generation undertaking that will fuel tens of thousands of good-paying jobs and bring economic stability to Groton for years to come.”

Biden, appearing sensitive to tensions with China and its criticism of the deal, stressed that the submarines are “nuclear powered, not nuclear armed.”

“These boats will not have any nuclear weapons of any kind of them,” he said at an outdoor ceremony at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, where he was flanked by Albanese and Sunak. Two submarines, the USS Missouri and the USS Charlotte, were tied up at the next pier in the Pacific Ocean behind the leaders.

Albanese said the agreement “represents the biggest single investment in Australia’s defense capability in all of our history.” It's also the first time in 65 years that the U.S. has shared its nuclear propulsion technology, ”and we thank you for it," he said.

Sunak called AUKUS “the most significant multilateral defense partnership in generations.” He said the U.K. also will share its 60 years of experience running its own submarine fleet with Australian engineers “so they can build their own fleet.”

In a joint statement before the formal announcement, the leaders said their countries have worked for decades to sustain peace, stability and prosperity around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific.

“We believe in a world that protects freedom and respects human rights, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states, and the rules-based international order,” they said in the statement, released before their joint appearance in San Diego.

“The steps we are announcing today will help us to advance these mutually beneficial objectives in the decades to come,” they said.

Australia is buying three, and possibly up to five, Virginia-class boats as part of AUKUS. A future generation of submarines will be built in the U.K. and in Australia with U.S. technology and support.

The U.S. will also increase its port visits in Australia to provide it with more familiarity with the nuclear-powered technology before it has such subs of its own. The USS Asheville was docked in Perth, Australia, on Monday, Biden said.

Biden was also expected to meet individually with Albanese and Sunak, an opportunity to coordinate strategy on Russia's war in Ukraine, the global economy and more.

The secretly brokered AUKUS deal included the Australian government’s cancellation of a $66 billion contract for a French-built fleet of conventional submarines, which sparked a diplomatic row within the Western alliance that took months to mend.

China has argued that the AUKUS deal violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It contends that the transfer of nuclear weapons materials from a nuclear-weapon state to a non-nuclear-weapon state is a “blatant” violation of the spirit of the pact. Australian officials have pushed back against the criticism, arguing that they are working to acquire nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, submarines.

“The question is really how does China choose to respond because Australia is not backing away from what it — what it sees to be doing in its own interests here,” said Charles Edel, a senior adviser and Australia chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I think that probably from Beijing’s perspective they’ve already counted out Australia as a wooable mid country. It seemed to have fully gone into the U.S. camp.”