Working for a Safer World

In September 2021, Australia signed a technology-sharing partnership with two of its closest allies, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The most ambitious aspect of the partnership, known as AUKUS, is the plan for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Just six countries currently operate nuclear submarines: China, France, India, Russia, the USA and the UK. Unlike Australia, each of these countries also possesses nuclear weapons.

The AUKUS partnership will result in a significant upgrade of the Royal Australian Navy’s submarine fleet and has been widely interpreted as a response to great-power competition in the Indo-Pacific region.

Unsurprisingly, AUKUS was immediately denounced by China. Other critics queried why a nation that has never held nuclear ambitions should want nuclear submarines.

As a result, the role of Australia’s Ambassador for Arms Control and Counter-Proliferation took on extra significance. The diplomat appointed to the position in January 2022 was BGS Old Boy Ian Biggs ’80, a senior public servant with decades of experience in global affairs.

Biggs’s job, in part, is to confirm on the world stage that Australia’s procurement of nuclear-powered submarines does not change its dedication to nuclear non-proliferation.

“It has become clear, after the AUKUS announcement and now after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that Australia needs dedicated effort on arms control and counter-proliferation,” Biggs told Grammar News

“By acquiring conventionally armed submarines with a different propulsion system, Australia is not, in any way, changing our commitment to a world without weapons of mass destruction.”

Biggs’s journey to this important position with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) began at BGS, where he honed his public speaking skills and his interest in public policy in debating.

“Grammar had – and I’m sure still has – a great respect for learning, for study, for hard work. It had an enormous influence on me,” Biggs, a former School Vice Captain, said.

I went to Grammar on a Trustees’ Scholarship, so I was conscious that it was a privilege. I look back very fondly on my time at school.

“I had a really excellent Modern History teacher called Cec Munns, who encouraged hard thinking on current policy issues around the world.”

In the four decades since graduating from BGS with 10 Speech Day prizes, Biggs has lived and worked in many countries in Europe and the Middle East, beginning in 1981 with archaeological fieldwork in Jordan as a student at The University of Sydney.

A fluent Arabic speaker, Biggs has held several diplomatic roles abroad and served as the Australian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2005-08), Turkey (2011-14), and Iran (2016-19). He was also chief of staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (2002-04).

In Saudi Arabia, his responsibilities included strengthening trade between the two nations, and rebuilding community morale among Australian expats in the period after 9/11.

In Turkey, a priority was to organise the Gallipoli commemorations each year during the lead-up to the Centenary of Anzac.

In Iran, Biggs was involved in the Australian Government effort to free Australian academic Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was imprisoned for two years on a baseless charge of espionage.

In Dr Moore-Gilbert’s book, The Uncaged Sky: My 804 Days in an Iranian Prison, she writes that Biggs patiently answered her questions during a meeting in the notorious Evin prison despite the guards insisting that he leave.

Dr Moore-Gilbert also credits Biggs for bringing her a Farsi dictionary so she could learn the language – something she said gave her “a reason to get up in the morning.”

In his current job, a pressing concern for Biggs is to continue Australia’s international outreach ahead of the government’s decision in March 2023 on the optimal pathway for the nuclearpowered submarines.

After such a peripatetic existence, Biggs said he is glad to be living in Australia once again, though he still maintains an extensive travel schedule. In 2022, he made no fewer than 26 international visits as Ambassador for Arms Control and Counter-Proliferation.

“It has been a real privilege to represent the Australian people and the Australian Government in many different places,” Biggs said.

“I’ve had a fascinating career, and I would encourage any of the current cadre of senior students at Grammar with an interest in global affairs and international issues to consider the foreign service as a career.”