'Historic breakthrough': US ditches defense trade restrictions with top allies to counter China

The U.S. and its top allies have taken a significant step in removing defense trade restrictions to ensure that technology and equipment can be shared at rapid speed as the AUKUS partnership looks to counter growing Chinese threats in the Indo Pacific.

The "historic breakthrough" means the U.K. and Australia will no longer be subject to strict export license controls under the U.S.’s International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) for the "majority" of Washington’s defense technology.

"We want the U.K. to be the U.S.’s number-one ally, and Australia's desire is to be the U.S.’s number-one ally in the Pacific," a U.K. official familiar with the agreement told Fox News Digital. "AUKUS is about us recognizing the threat that China poses and the need for us, as America's allies, to do everything we can to be part of competing with China in that space."

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A limited number of sensitive items will remain under tight U.S. control, and the U.K. official said this is another area in which the alliance can look to deepen its trust and partnership in the face of growing adversarial aggression.

"We're looking for deep collaboration with the U.S. over the coming period," the official said. "Some of the restrictions that remain on the excluded lists will be in those very advanced technologies where the U.S. is still rightly cautious about controlling access to them and really safeguarding the technology.

"What we want to do with this new status quo is use it to show that our industry is equally competent of controlling those secrets, equally competent of safeguarding the technology, so we can build even more trust with the U.S., so we can expand this sharing of