The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) offices in San Francisco are hosting the inaugural meeting of ‘Pillar 2’.

This invite-only event will take place on Thursday 26 October from 5:30pm to 7:00pm at the United Kingdom Consulate General San Francisco at 1 Sansome Street. An informal collaboration of the Australian and British Consulates, as well as Silicon Valley Defense Group, the evening will include an intimate networking reception as well as a brief roundtable discussion to consider Pillar 2 of the AUKUS Trilateral Security Partnership.’

Pillar 2 promotes acceleration of the development and transfer between the AUKUS partners of critical and emerging technologies, including: artificial intelligence, advanced cybersecurity, quantum and hypersonics, among others. Unlike conventional defence platforms, such as the submarines that central to AUKUS’s ‘Pillar 1,’ many ‘Pillar 2’ technologies emerge not from secure, government-driven programs, but from open, commercial R&D processes. Consequently, accelerating development and transfer of these technologies is not a conventional government-to-government process, but rather must involve private actors such as innovative start-ups and investors in a complex public-private partnership that is also international.

This series of meet-ups seeks to understand the challenges and opportunities AUKUS partners face in creating an international public-private partnership to promote their common security. Our inaugural event on 26 October considers the role of private investors, particularly venture capital investors, in creating and delivering national security capabilities.