Scott Morrison's high stakes brinkmanship with AUKUS deal

It was a deal Australia had been trying to shore up for more than four decades, and this year, following a series of secret meetings, it finally became a reality, revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s international and political editor Peter Hartcher.

The deal, which was part of an enhanced trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, allows Australia to have conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarines for the first time.

The announcement in September saw the end of a $90 billion deal with the french to build submarines, causing major diplomatic fallout and prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to describe Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a liar.

Until now the full details of how the French deal unravelled and how the new arrangement with the US came about were shrouded in mystery. 

Today on Please Explain, Peter Hartcher joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss how it all came to pass.

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