There are no plans to invite Canada to a security pact between Australia, the UK, and the United States focused on defence technology cooperation, says U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
The trilateral security pact, AUKUS, was formed in 2021 and has been seen as a way to counter China’s growing military presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
“It’s not an alliance; it’s not some sort of club,” he said, adding that people are looking at it the wrong way.
‘Why Are We Not Included?’
“The fact is that [nuclear submarine] technology has existed for a while, so the sharing of that is not a big deal,” Vice-Admiral Bob Auchterlonie told The Canadian Press in January.“The issue is when you start talking about advanced technology in terms of the artificial intelligence domain, machine learning, quantum, all of these things that really matter moving forward. Those are conversations we need to be in on. And the issue is: Why are we not included in this?”
Kirby said the United States works with Canada in other ways, such as through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). “We work very well with the Canadian Armed Forces,” he said. “We know Canada is an Indo-Pacific power.”
But when asked whether Canada could be included in AUKUS in the future, Kirby said, “I just don’t have anything to say on that. ... There really aren’t discussions or plans.”
Role of AUKUS in Countering CCP
A June 6 report by an Australian think tank stresses the importance of the two AUKUS initiatives in countering the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).An analysis of 2 million scientific papers showed that Beijing has a great lead in military capabilities.
“Across a number of technology areas, China’s lead is so great that no aggregation of countries exceeds its share—highlighting the importance of the accelerating effect of greater collaboration between like-minded partners,” Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said.
ASPI found that about 14 percent of high-impact authors in China had received their training in AUKUS countries, with most (8.5 percent) in the United States.
Kirby said tensions with the Chinese military in the Indo-Pacific are increasing, signaling a greater need for security, along with diplomatic communications.
Kirby said if incidents like this continue, aggressions might lead to real conflict.
“There’s a lot of chance for people to get hurt and nobody wants to see it devolve into that kind of confrontation.”