cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/10180652

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As Canada seeks to renew and strengthen its defence industrial base and deepen Indo-Pacific engagement, the new Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) will depend on strong partnerships with leading technology ecosystems.

To accomplish its mandate, the DSRB should include Taiwan. Without Taiwan’s participation, it will struggle to achieve its objectives, given the island’s centrality to “non-red” dual-use technologies and its growing appetite to finance that ecosystem.

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Canada’s interest in the DSRB also aligns with Ottawa’s growing Indo-Pacific engagement, including exercises, defence agreements, advanced sensing, and dual-use technology cooperation. This includes Canada’s role in leading the air component command at RIMPAC this year, its new status of visiting forces agreement with the Philippines, and growing defence ties with Australia and New Zealand.

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The Canadian government recognised Taiwan’s importance in dual-use technologies by establishing the Taipei hard tech Canadian Technology Accelerator program earlier this year. This program focuses on dual-use technologies that are key to Canada’s defence-industrial sovereignty, including drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), autonomous mobile robots, and advanced communications, such as 6G.

If Canada is already investing diplomatic, military, and technological efforts in the region’s defence ecosystem, excluding Taiwan from the DSRB would leave out one of the most important nodes for advanced manufacturing and dual-use technology in the Indo-Pacific.

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The question is not whether Taiwan can fit neatly into existing diplomatic categories, but whether Carney’s government can use the DSRB to truly finance the trusted democratic industrial capacity needed without engaging one of the world’s most important advanced-manufacturing and dual-use technology ecosystems.

To ensure it can, the Carney government should advocate that the DSRB include flexible participation mechanisms for places like Taiwan. Doing so would help the DSRB accomplish its goal, help Canada realise its strategic priorities, and help small and medium-sized democracies to advance their sovereignty and strengthen their economies collectively.

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