SYDNEY -- Australia will construct a nuclear submarine base in the east of the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Monday.
The project, estimated to cost more than 10 billion Australian dollars ($7.4 billion), is aimed at enhancing the country's defense and checking China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. The announcement also came in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Morrison framed as part of a larger "assault" by autocracies against the rules-based international order.
