US submarines at HMAS Stirling, B-52 rotations through Tindal and deepening military integration are tying Australia ever more closely to US strategic priorities – including the prospect of war with China over Taiwan, Paul Keating writes.

The claim by Michael McCaul, a visiting US Republican congressman, that US nuclear submarines rotating through Western Australia under the AUKUS pact “could be carrying nuclear weapons” is a very disturbing indication that the West Australian naval facility, HMAS Stirling, will in all likelihood be hosting American nuclear weapons.

In playing down the concern that hosting American nuclear weapons would make Australia a target, McCaul informed us that in his view Australia “was already a target”. I don’t think the community of Perth will be taking comfort from this advice.

With a continent of our own and a border with no one, we would have to be dumbstruck, and go out of one’s way, to become a target for anyone.

In uppity schoolmaster posture, McCaul told us it was........

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