Australia, the UK and the United States have agreed to a three-way co-operation to address risk to critical supply chains.
The agreement sets up the Australia-United Kingdom-United States Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group which will co-operate on data sharing and joint action to build resilience in priority supply chains.
“Strengthening critical supply chains is vital for ensuring the stability and resilience needed to meet the UK’s growth mission. This agreement signifies a deepening of the important and historic relationship between the UK, US, and Australia and reinforces our mutual commitment to tackling supply chains challenges,” a statement from the UK’s Department for Business and Trade reads.
The US Department of Homeland Security added that the Group will set up an early warning pilot focused on telecoms, which includes satellite and sub-sea communications. The pilot will identify and monitor portential disruptions to the supply chain in that sector and will aim to enhance global understanding of the sector’s vulnerability.
Telecommunications infrastructure is vital to the distribution of public safety information, emergency services, and the day to day lives of people in all three countries. The US Department of Homeland Security points out that, or example, undersea fiberoptic cables carry over 95% of trans-oceanic data without which smartphones, financial networks, and communications systems would cease to function reliably.
“The resilience of our critical supply chains is a homeland security and economic security imperative,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Collaboration with international partners allows us to anticipate and mitigate disruptions before they occur. Our new U.S.-U.K.-Australia Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group will help ensure that our communities continue to have the essential goods and services they need, when they need them.”
“Strong supply chains are essential for our economic security, and we cannot rely purely on the invisible hand of the market to deliver them,” said .K. Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security Douglas Alexander. “Improved cooperation between our three nations will help us to identify and mitigate disruption to supply chains and better support U.K. businesses trading internationally.”
The UK and Australia formalised co-operation with the Department of Homeland Security’s Supply Chain Resilience Center in 2023, which works to analyse supply chain vulnerabilities and works with federal and private sector stakeholders to mitigate potential disruptions.
The U.K’s Economic Security and Supply Chain Resilience Directorate, housed in the Department for Business and Trade, oversees efforts to mitigate supply-side risks to the U.K. economy and support greater long-term resilience. Australia’s Office of Supply Chain Resilience, housed in the Department for Industry, Science, and Resources, focuses on mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities and ensuring ongoing access to essential goods and services. These offices participating in the Memorandum of Understanding are not direct DHS counterparts, but their mission areas include significant overlap with respect to supply chain resilience issues. This partnership reflects the multifaceted nature of supply chain challenges and draws on the wide-ranging expertise represented between the three participants.
