When you add the VLAN tagged to a port, and the device on the other side of the link has the same VLAN tagged (and may be port in trunk-mode), yes they can communicate over that VLAN.
Small side-step, on ArubaOS Switches, a trunk is what is called an etherchannel on other platforms. So if you define trunk ports, you can add multiple physical ports that form a higher capacity and redundant link most times to other switches like your core. If you are reading the documentation, that may be confusing. If you are familiar with Cisco or Comware commands, this ArubaOS-Switch, Comware and Cisco IOS CLI Reference Guide may be useful.
So, yes you will be fine if you add the VLANs tagged on both sides. No need to switch port mode.