Australia has “absolutely” not vowed to support the US in a conflict over Taiwan in return for US Virginia class submarines, Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday. Australia, the US and Britain this week unveiled the multi-decade Aukus project in which Canberra will buy the US military submarines before joint British and Australian production and operation of a new submarine class, SSN-Aukus. Australia’s centre-left Labor government believes the A$368 billion (US$244.06 billion) deal is necessary given Chinese military build-up in the region, which it has labelled the largest since World War II. ‘A past mindset’: Aukus upends Australia’s attempted US-China balancing act Asked on ABC television if, in return for access to the US military submarines, Australia had given the US any commitment to help during a conflict over Taiwan , Marles said: “Of course not, and nor was one sought”. He said there was “absolutely not” a quid pro quo obligation on Australia from the deal. “We want the best relationship with China that we can have and we are working very hard to stabilise that relationship,” said Marles, who is also deputy prime minister. “But those hard power equation facts exist, and we need to be thinking about that when we’re determining our own hard power equation.” Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the option of force to take the island back. President Joe Biden has said the US would defend Taiwan in the event of “an unprecedented attack” by China. Under the Aukus deal, which Asian allies had welcomed but which Beijing has criticised as an act of nuclear proliferation, the US intends to sell Australia three of the US Virginia class subs, built by General Dynamics, in the early 2030s, with an option for Canberra to buy two more. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the deal would “exacerbate” a regional arms race, and that the Aukus partners had “totally disregarded the concerns of the international community and gone further down the wrong and dangerous path.” Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Sunday he was confident a scheduled visit to China to meet his counterpart Wang Wentao would go ahead despite Aukus. Farrell said last month the meeting was a signal that Australia-China relations were thawing. “Everything is pointing in the right direction for a stabilisation of the relationship and I’d be very confident that process will continue,” Farrell told Sky News. “Of course, at the same time, we want to make sure that everything we do is in our national interest and dealing with the issues of our national security.” Asian-Australians fear ‘Red Alert’ warmongering will fuel rise in racist hate He expressed hope for a visit to China by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this year, according to a government transcript of his interview with Sky News. The Aukus programme is to start with a A$6 billion investment over the next four years to expand a submarine base and the country’s submarine shipyards, as well as train skilled workers. Australia is also set to provide A$3 billion to expand US and British shipbuilding capacity, with the bulk of the money to speed up production of US Virginia class submarines. Additional reporting by Bloomberg