Winston Peters: New Zealand ‘a long way’ from joining Aukus

Wednesday, 1 May 2024

A woman stood up and refused to sit down while holding up a piece of paper in protest.

Winston Peters made a stark assessment of the challenges of a world mired in conflict in a 20 minute speech in Parliament on Wednesday night.
He said New Zealand was “a long way” from signing on as an associate to Aukus, a security pact between Australia, the US and UK.
However, he said there was an “ideological” element underpinning Aukus criticism, part of “a strand of anti-Americanism”.

Winston Peters ejected a protester as he sought to quell growing fears about New Zealand joining Aukus, a multi-billion dollar security pact, in a wide-ranging speech from Parliament on Wednesday night.

An anti-Aukus protester interrupted Winston Peters’ foreign affairs speech at Parliament on Wednesday.

The minister of foreign affairs stopped his speech several times in response to the protester, who stood up as he made the statements about New Zealand's place in the world.

Peters emphasised growing global threats, including the shift from a rules-based international order to a power-based one, a change in focus from economics to security, and from efficiency to resilience.

Speaking from the Phillipines, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says New Zealand still has an interest in being involved in the security partnership.

The next steps for Aukus

Peters, in a twenty-minute speech, outlined the process around Aukus, a controversial security pact between Australia, the UK and the US, centred around nuclear submarines.

Peters said the Government had been exploring joining pillar two of the Aukus agreement, based around sharing information and technology.

The pact has angered China, New Zealand's largest trading partner, which says the pact is fuelling an arms race. Western analysts also perceive the pact to be in response to China's growing assertiveness, especially its actions in the South China Sea where it has been particularly aggressive, heightening tensions with Southeast Asian states who have territorial claims in the area.

Peters said New Zealand had an “innately complex” relationship with China, but that it was was “a long way” from signing on as an associate to the Aukus alliance.

An anti-Aukus protester refused to leave Winston Peters’ foreign affairs lecture.

Weighing up whether New Zealand should join the pact would 'take time', Peters said, and was also preconditioned on being invited to do so - which New Zealand had not been. Peters said it also wasn’t clear what the criteria to join pillar two would be.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has told the United Nations General Assembly the war in Gaza is an “utter catastrophe” that has left the Palestinian territory a “wasteland”.

He also raised key concerns over whether new $3.5 billion Poseidon and $2.1 billion Hercules aircraft would be compatible with technology acquired through pillar two if New Zealand were to join in the coming years.

“We must also carefully examine what utilities, if any, we might offer, or be expected to offer Pillar 2 partners, in return. That will take time,” he said.

Foreign policy direction

Peters described the government’s foreign policy as boosting focus on South East Asia and India, re-energising its work with Pacific leaders, targeting multilateral institutions to global issues where New Zealand values and freedoms are at stake, supporting new groupings of like-minded partners to more efficiently advance the country’s interests, and significantly boosting export value.

The Blue Continent, made up of small Pacific states in the vast Pacific ocean, was facing more sustained strategic competition and challenges than at any time during the past 80 years.

“Some island nations also face an existential threat from climate change,” he said.

Peters reiterated the government’s stance on recognising Palestine as a state, but said it was not the right time in the midst of Israel’s ongoing offensive.

“De-escalation, a permanent ceasefire, releasing hostages, and relieving the humanitarian crisis are the needs of the moment, and we risk diverting the world’s attention and energy away from them if we launch head-long now into a complicated debate about Palestinian Statehood.“

He also spoke of the need to push for reform of the UN Security Council vote.

The address to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs comes just days after Peters arrived back in New Zealand from Turkey. He visited Gallipoli Peninsula for ANZAC day, after two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States.

In March, he visited Indonesia, Singapore and India. He has visited 14 countries but engaged with more than 60, a spokesperson for his office said.