A triangle across oceans: Australia, Canada, India to cooperate on emerging tech, minerals and artificial intelligence
A triangle across oceans: Australia, Canada, India to cooperate on emerging tech, minerals and artificial intelligence
A Triangle Across Oceans: Australia, Canada, and India’s Minilateral Experiment
On November 22, Australia, Canada, and India unveiled a new trilateral partnership. The Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership, announced during the G-20 Summit in Johannesburg, commits the three countries to collaborate on emerging technologies, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and green energy innovation.
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The announcement comes at a time when middle powers are steadily experimenting with specialized, issue-focused groupings. Minilateralism has become a preferred way for states to pursue targeted cooperation without the burdens of alliances or the paralysis of large multilateral organizations.
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First, until now, India, Australia, and Canada have not operated within a dedicated institutional framework focused on high technology and innovation. Their interactions have remained bilateral, episodic, or embedded within broader platforms, such as the G-20 or the Commonwealth. ACITI introduces a structured, issue-based mechanism that ties the three together in a way that neither geography nor formal alliances previously did.
Second, the geography of the grouping is particularly distinctive. Most minilaterals cluster within a single strategic theater. By contrast, ACITI stretches across Asia, Oceania, and North America. It links three regions whose engagements have historically been mediated through larger Western institutions or broader Indo-Pacific strategies. By forming a triangle that spans oceans rather than strengthening an existing regional silo, the partnership implicitly advocates for a different approach to strategy that is not region-bound.
Third, equally significant is the language in which this partnership has been framed. References to net-zero transitions, responsible technology, democratic innovation, and critical supply-chain resilience indicate that ACITI is based on normative convergence. Each country – Australia, Canada, and India – sees technology governance and the green transition as arenas where political identity is expressed. For this reason, the formation of ACITI is also a symbolic articulation of shared democratic values. This introduces a layer of uncertainty that is unusual for new minilaterals.
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ACITI arrives at a time of uneven political alignment among its members. The success of trilaterals depends on the stability of all three bilateral legs. For now, the Canada-India leg is visibly weaker. While Australia-India ties are robust and expanding, the Canada-India relationship has experienced deep turbulence over the past few years. Diplomatic tensions, political accusations, and diaspora driven flashpoints have created moments of severe strain.
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There is another challenge as well: the geopolitical environment in which ACITI has emerged. Technology partnerships increasingly operate under the shadow of major power competition. China is likely to interpret ACITI as another democratic arrangement designed to complicate its technological and industrial dominance. The United States may welcome it, but Washington’s tendency to fold every initiative into its own strategic logic could place unforeseen pressure on the triangle. Managing these cross-pressures while maintaining autonomy will be a key test of ACITI’s strategic maturity.
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ACITI captures the possibilities of new minilateral thinking, but also exposes the vulnerabilities that come with untested diplomatic geometry. Whether it endures will depend on institutional follow-through, political steadiness, and the ability to deliver early. If it succeeds, it could serve as a template for a new class of ... partnerships defined by innovation rather than geography.
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