GENEVA, September 18. /TASS/. The handover of highly enriched nuclear materials to Australia by the UK and the US within the AUKUS group for use in nuclear submarine engines poses an unprecedented challenge both to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safeguards system and the entire nuclear non-proliferation regime, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Andrey Belousov said.

"For the fifth consecutive IAEA General Conference, we have been discussing the handover of highly enriched nuclear materials to Australia by the UK and the US within the AUKUS group in order to use them in nuclear submarine engines. Russia has consistently maintained that the AUKUS submarine project is an unprecedented challenge both to the IAEA safeguards system and the entire nuclear non-proliferation regime," he pointed out at the 70th IAEA General Conference in Vienna.

AUKUS is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, particularly focused on creating a nuclear submarine fleet for Australia.