Australia to send Aukus experts to NZ to discuss ‘second pillar’

Thursday, 1 February 2024

Australia will send a team of Aukus experts to New Zealand as both countries promise a conjoined “whole-of-nation” effort to defend their interests.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins met with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles on Thursday afternoon, an inaugural joint meeting for such New Zealand and Australian ministers, to discuss the trans-Tasman relationship in a “reshaping world”.

The ministers produced a lengthy statement from their meeting in which they committed to reinforcing the security alliance for “safeguarding our national interests and contributing to the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific”.

Peters and Collins agreed in the statement that the contentious Aukus agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom, and United States - which will have Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the greater powers in the coming decades - had “made a positive contribution toward maintaining peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific”.

Marles, speaking after the meeting, said Australia would now send a team to New Zealand to discuss co-operation in the Aukus pact’s so-called “second pillar”, which will involve the sharing of cutting-edge defence technology.

The National-coalition Government, which has maintained New Zealand’s long-standing ban on nuclear weapons and power, has expressed interest in participating in this non-nuclear aspect of the pact.

He said Australia would send a briefing team “very shortly” to brief New Zealand on Aukus, particularly the second pillar which had been of interest to other countries of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.

“We want to see runs on the board in relation to pillar two between the three countries Australia, US and UK.

“But in the longer-term, we're open to the idea of pillar two to being open to some other countries who may be interested.”

Marles said the meeting was a “huge step forward” in 'constructing two defence forces that are seamless in the way that we are operating“.

Collins said New Zealand had an active space and technology sector which assisted other countries already, and this could add to the Aukus agreement.

Peters said both countries needed to expand an effort to make defence forces more “interoperable” to other areas - foreign policy, aid programmes, in the Pacific, and anywhere both countries worked - to make “our effort and money go further”.

“Everything we talked about today … is of far greater acuity and importance than it’s every been in the lifetime of anybody in this room. I think I can say that fairly.”

The statement covered both countries’ views on various global issues including the recent COP meeting, the “devastating crisis” in the Gaza war, and “serious concern” at China’s “destabilising activities” in the South China Sea.