Canada Exploring Possibility of Joining AUKUS Security Alliance, Trudeau Says

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a press conference regarding Canada's new defence policy at CFB Trenton, in Trenton, Ont., April 8, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Canada is considering joining the second phase of AUKUS, a U.S.-led security partnership with the United Kingdom and Australia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

“We are already observers in one of the working groups in Pillar II of AUKUS and we’ve had excellent conversations with the U.S., the U.K., and Australia [about] how we can work even closer,” Mr. Trudeau said during an April 8 press conference at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario.

He said “it’s good news that both Canada and New Zealand are going to be joined by Japan [in] engaging more closely” in phase 2 AUKUS conversations.

“I think it’s really important that allies, particularly across the Indo-Pacific, work together in stronger and tighter ways and those Canadian conversations with our partners will continue,” Mr. Trudeau added.

The first pillar of the alliance, which was established in 2021, focused on developing nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

The prime minister’s comments come a day after U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel indicated Japan is “about to become the first additional Pillar II partner” in AUKUS.

It would be the first expansion of the defence-sharing arrangement outside the original three partners, which includes working together on areas such as nuclear submarine propulsion and quantum technology.

Purchase of nuclear submarines is under consideration by Ottawa as a means to ensure the defence of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic, Mr. Trudeau told reporters during the press conference.

“We will be looking at what type of submarines are most appropriate for Canada’s responsibility in protecting the longest coastline in the world,” he said.

The prime minister’s comments coincided with Ottawa’s release of its long-awaited defence policy review, which is focused on better protecting Canadian sovereignty in the North. The plan includes billions of dollars in new spending, but doesn’t address the need to reach NATO’s spending target of 2 percent of GDP in any detail.

The plan includes the procurement of new submarines, long-range missiles and early-warning aircraft, and boosting military spending to 1.76 percent by 2030.

AUKUS Absence

The defence agreement between the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia was formed to counter Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The U.S. Department of Defence describes AUKUS as a way to “promote deeper information sharing and technology sharing; and foster deeper integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains.”

Mr. Trudeau was heavily criticized after Canada was excluded from AUKUS in 2021, just days before the last election.

Although Canada is part of the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance with Australia, United Kingdom, United States, and New Zealand, then-Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole said not being part of AUKUS was proof the Liberals didn’t place importance on maintaining relationships with its allies.

“This is another example that Mr. Trudeau is not taken seriously by our friends and allies around the world,” Mr. O’Toole told reporters just prior to the 2021 election. “Canada is becoming more irrelevant under Mr. Trudeau.”

The prime minister said Canada wasn’t included in AUKUS because the country was not in the market for nuclear submarines.

Security researchers, in a report released last March, said Canada should have a seat at the table because it not only borders three oceans, it is a member of core security alliances.

“Canada—the country with the world’s longest coastline, bordering the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans, founding NATO ally, member of both the Five Eyes partnership and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)—has been nowhere to be found in AUKUS discussions,” the researchers said in a piece published by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“The glacial pace at which Canada appears to be adapting to the realities of modern great power competition has left it far behind the curve, with consequences for both Ottawa’s reputation among its allies, and its ability to protect Canadian territory, sovereignty, and contribute to global peace and stability,” wrote the authors, which include Mr. Trudeau’s former national security and intelligence adviser Vincent Rigby.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CTV News last June there was no plan to include Canada in the pact.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.