Aukus looks to add Japan to grouping as deterrent

The United States, Britain and Australia will announce talks today about bringing new members into their Aukus security pact as Washington pushes for Japan to be involved as a deterrent against China, the Financial Times reported.

The announcement by the group’s defence ministers would be related to “Pillar II” of the pact, which commits the members to jointly developing quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

They were not considering expanding the first pillar, which was designed to deliver nuclearpowered attack submarines to Australia, the paper said.

Aukus, unveiled by the three countries in 2021, is part of their efforts to push back against China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. China has called the pact dangerous and warned it could spur a regional arms race.

US President Joe Biden has sought to step up partnerships with American allies in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, amid China’s historic military build-up and its growing territorial assertiveness.

Rahm Emanuel, the outspoken US ambassador in Tokyo, wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last Wednesday that Japan was “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner”.

A senior US administration official told Reuters some sort of announcement could be expected in the coming week about Japan’s involvement, but gave no details.

Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are likely to discuss expanding Aukus to include Japan when the president hosts the prime minister in Washington on Wednesday, according to a source.

Australia, however, was wary of beginning new projects until more progress has been made on supplying Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines, said the source, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles “has said publicly, and to Japan, that we will seek opportunities to engage close partners in Aukus Pillar II as our work on critical defence and security capabilities progresses”, a spokesman said when asked for comment on the FT report.

“Japan is an indispensable defence partner for Australia,” the spokesman said. “Any engagement of additional countries in Aukus Pillar II projects will be trilaterally decided and announced.”