Canada is considering joining the Aukus pact and believes it may need nuclear submarines to patrol its Arctic waters, Justin Trudeau has said.
The Canadian prime minister said on Monday that he had already held “excellent conversations” with the US, UK and Australia over joining the alliance.
Aukus, launched in September 2021, is a defence alliance focused on sharing nuclear submarine technology, which in 2023 announced intentions to help Australia build its first vessels.
Canada would become the fourth member of the pact, which is now looking at sharing information on technology, AI and the construction of new weapons.
The country has been floated as a possible contender for membership by several high-profile figures from member states, including Boris Johnson, who was in office as UK prime minister when the alliance launched.
Mr Trudeau said it was “really important that allies, particularly across the Indo-Pacific, work together in a stronger and tighter ways”, in a nod towards the alliance’s threat from China.
Supporters of Canada’s membership have said that the country’s supply of critical natural minerals would allow the UK, US and Australia to be less reliant on exports from China.
The announcement came as Mr Trudeau launched a new defence policy document that included calls for the purchase of conventionally powered submarines and left open the prospect of a nuclear model.
“We will be looking at what type of submarines are most appropriate for Canada’s responsibility in protecting the longest coastline in the world, and certainly the longest Arctic coastline in the world,” he said.
The paper set out significant investment in the Canadian armed forces but did not establish how the country planned to reach the Nato defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.
In February 2024, Mr Johnson and Liz Truss, his successor, backed a paper from the Legatum Institute calling for Canada’s membership to be fast-tracked to “strengthen the West’s collective defences”.
Mr Johnson said Canada was the “most obvious next candidate” because it had “fought – often heroically – for freedom”.
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