The UK, US and Australia are rushing to expand their trilateral defense partnership AUKUS to other allied countries ahead of potentially tumultuous elections in all three countries over the next 14 months.
One senior diplomat involved in the talks told the publication that Japan and Canada intend to join the so-called second paragraph of the AUKUS agreement, under which participants will sign broad cooperation in the field of military technology by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
It comes amid fears in Washington, London and Canberra that Donald Trump could scrap the AUKUS agreement if he wins the US presidential election in November.
The AUKUS Security Agreement was first announced in September 2021. Its first part, paragraph 1, provides for US and UK assistance to Australia in the construction of nuclear submarines.
Paragraph 2 of the agreement allows the three countries to agree on agreements to develop advanced military technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles and quantum technologies.
It was always intended that Paragraph 2 could be expanded to include other US allies, including Japan, Canada, New Zealand and South Korea.
A second diplomat involved in the talks said US President Joe Biden's administration is now "moving very aggressively to get some things done on the second paragraph of AUKUS now, before the US elections" in November.
Let us recall that in March 2023, Prime Ministers of Australia Anthony Albanese and Britain Rishi Sunak, as well as US President Joseph Biden announced an agreement between the states of the AUKUS alliance to provide the Australian Navy with nuclear submarines.
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