MOSCOW, November 28. /TASS/. Russia expects that after 18 months of additional review, members of the AUKUS security partnership (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States) would realize the need to ditch the nuclear submarine project, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"We expect that common sense would eventually prevail, and when the 18 months that AUKUS participants had reserved for additional study run out, they would come to a conclusion about the need to wrap up the implementation of the nuclear sub project, taking into account the opinion of the international community," Ulyanov said in a statement, posted by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official website.

On September 15, Washington, Canberra and London announced the creation of AUKUS, a new security pact under which Australia was to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with the help of US technologies. Under the deal, Australia also plans to furnish its armed forces with US cruise missiles.

Due to the AUKUS pact, Canberra severed its largest-ever defense contract with France worth over 50 billion euro for the delivery of submarines, saying that it no longer met Australia’s national interests. In response, France accused the Australian authorities of deliberate deceit and recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the United States for consultations.

The establishment of the trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and the US (AUKUS) undermines regional stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with CNBC in mid-October. China also sharply criticized the creation of a new alliance.