Canada’s on our side

China on edge as Ottawa, Tokyo look to AUKUS pact

Canada is exploring joining the second phase of AUKUS, as the northern American middle power considers whether it needs nuclear submarines to patrol its waters.

President Justin Trudeau made the comments on Monday, local time, as he unveiled a defence policy review, revealing he had had “excellent conversations” with Australia, the US and the UK about collaborating with the alliance.

His revelation came as the Australian, British, and American defence ministers flagged the possibility of opening up

Pillar II of AUKUS to include Japan.

While the first pillar concerns building nuclear submarines, the second part is about sharing technology.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was no chance of “expanding membership” and AUKUS was instead looking at whether Japan or other countries could collaborate on a project-byproject base.

“Japan is a natural candidate for (Pillar II),” the Prime Minister said. “We’ve already stepped up our defence relationship with Japan … But when we look at Pillar II, the project-by-project approach is there. What is not proposed is to expand the membership of AUKUS.”

China meanwhile said it was “gravely concerned” about the prospect of Japan collaborating with the AUKUS partners.

Even before the potential expansion was confirmed, it sparked a warning from China that bringing in Japan risked “escalating the arms race in the Asia-Pacific”.

Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China was “gravely concerned” about Japan joining the pact.

“We oppose relevant countries cobbling together exclusive groupings and stoking bloc confrontation,” she said on Monday. “Japan needs to earnestly draw lessons from history and stay prudent on military and security issues.”

The AUKUS defence ministers said they had always intended to “engage others in Pillar II” of the alliance.

Pillar II projects are not related to the building of nuclear submarine capabilities, but concern sharing technology and a plan to jointly develop and provide military capabilities with a focus on regional security to counter China.

“Our objective remains to further the delivery of advanced military capabilities to our respective defence forces in support of regional stability and security,” the defence ministers’ joint statement said.

“We are confident that engaging like-minded partners in the work of Pillar II will only strengthen this pursuit.

“Recognising Japan’s strengths and its close bilateral defence partnerships with all three countries, we are considering co-operation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects.”

Pillar I of the pact will deliver nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.