Paterson said these were among the issues that would be discussed over coming days, when the Australian delegation meets Congress members such as Democrat Joe Courtney and Republican Mike Gallagher, co-chairs of the so-called AUKUS caucus; Republican Rob Wittman, the vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; and senior members of the defence industry.

Courtney, who is co-chair of the so-called “AUKUS caucus”, has said the agreement is the “most important security partnership” the US has entered into in decades and warned “there’s going to be a lot of hard work on Australia’s side”.

“This is the most ambitious national project Australia has ever entered into,” Paterson said. “It’s a multidecade partnership and there’s a lot of things we need to do to make sure it works. Failure is not an option.”

AUKUS isn’t the only issue on the agenda this week. As the Albanese government prepares to announce a ban on the use of TikTok on government-issued devices, Paterson, who is the opposition’s spokesman for cybersecurity, was set to discuss the issue over dinner on Wednesday night (US time) with Gallagher, who is also the chair of the US Congress’ select committee on China, and one of Australia’s biggest allies in Washington.

Earlier this month, the US threatened to ban TikTok unless the social media company’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, divested its stake in the app. The US has already banned TikTok on federal government devices but this marks the first time that a potential nationwide ban has been threatened.

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Paterson said the US crackdown, which he supported, could have “profound” implications for Australia.

“If it’s only TikTok US which is divested from ByteDance but TikTok Australia won’t be divested from ByteDance, that won’t solve the problem for us,” he said. “So if the administration and Congress are going down that path, we have to make sure we’re included in that.”

The Australian delegation’s trip comes at a pivotal moment in US-China relations. In New York, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrived on Wednesday on a sensitive US stopover, despite China threatening retaliation if she met House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which she is expected to do next week.

In north-west Washington, another former prime minister Kevin Rudd – one of Australia’s pre-eminent experts on Beijing – was settling into his new role as ambassador to the US, after taking over from former Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos.

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And at a congressional hearing at the Capitol, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Mark Milley warned that China was on a “disturbing” path to become “militarily superior” to the US by mid-century, and that America may not be able to “stop, slow down, disrupt, interdict or destroy” China’s nuclear development program.

“That’s really bothersome,” Milley said. “We’re going to have to not only keep pace, but we have to outpace that, and that will assure the peace.”

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