Canada’s Rimpac deployment exposes NATO’s militarised Pacific pivot amid US hegemonic tensions
Original framing: “Canada steps up at Rimpac to rebut Trump’s freeriding charge” — South China Morning Post
The Pacific has been a theatre of Western naval dominance since the 1840s, when US Commodore Perry ‘opened’ Japan and Britain asserted control over Fiji. NATO’s Indo-Pacific pivot mirrors Cold War-era ANZUS and SEATO alliances, which were used to contain communist influence under the guise of ‘collective security.’ Canada’s participation in Rimpac continues this legacy, despite its 1970s policy of ‘peacekeeping’—now repurposed as ‘peace enforcement’ in service of US hegemony.
Canada’s Rimpac deployment is less a rebuttal to Trump’s ‘freeriding’ charge than a continuation of NATO’s 70-year project of Pacific militarisation, from Cold War alliances to today’s Indo-Pacific pivot.
The framing obscures how this expansion serves the US-led military-industrial complex while sidelining Indigenous Pacific voices advocating for ‘Blue Pacific’ governance rooted in relationality, not domination. Historical parallels abound: NATO’s current manoeuvres mirror the 19th-century gunboat diplomacy that displaced Indigenous sovereignty, yet today’s discourse frames naval exercises as ‘neutral’ multilateralism. The absence of Pacific Island leaders in Western media narratives reveals a structural bias, where their ‘Blue Pacific’ vision—prioritising climate resilience over arms races—is dismissed as ‘idealistic.’ A systemic solution requires demilitarisation, Indigenous-led governance, and redirecting military funds to adaptation, challenging the very foundations of NATO’s Pacific expansion.