If all these countries join it makes me wonder of the AUKUS is turning into a Pacific version of NATO to counter China:
The United States, Britain and Australia are considering South Korea, Canada and New Zealand as potential partners for cooperation on advanced capability projects of their AUKUS security partnership, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday.
The remarks came a day after the defense chiefs of the three countries issued a joint statement noting their consideration of Japan as a partner for Pillar II projects of the partnership.
Launched in September 2021 in an apparent move to counter China’s assertiveness, AUKUS consists of two key pillars. Pillar I is to support Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, while Pillar II is for cooperation in high-tech areas, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence and hypersonics.
“The AUKUS partners are considering a range of additional partners who may bring unique strengths to Pillar 2, including the ROK, Canada and New Zealand, in addition to Japan,” the official said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency. ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but China is of course complaining about this announcement. If China would quit trying to forcibly take over other nation’s territory there would be no need for AUKUS in the first place.
