US and NZ to ‘work more closely’ to uphold international order
Friday, 12 April 2024
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Winston Peters say the US and New Zealand will work “even more closely” to uphold the international order through diplomatic, defence, and intelligence means.
Blinken and Peters met in Washington DC overnight and afterwards issued a joint statement promising to re-commit their countries to a strategic partnership and increase security work with Australia. Both faced “strategic competition”, in terms of China’s growing power in the Pacific, as well as the Ukraine war and the climate crisis.
Alongside this, Peters announced New Zealand would contribute $16 million to “practical projects” in the Pacific which involve the US. Of that, $8.2m would go to digital connectivity to Tuvalu through a Pacific Connect Cable project, and $8.2m to the construction of a ocean and fisheries research vessel for Pacific Island countries.
“The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more challenging now than even a decade ago and demands that we work together more urgently and concertedly,” Peters said, in a separate statement.
Blinken and Peters, in the joint statement, promised there would be annual meetings between the US Secretary of State and New Zealand foreign minister, as both countries “do more together” than previously set out by the Wellington and Washington declarations signed by the two countries.
“We are resolved to uphold the conditions that have seen the region thrive, including freedom of navigation, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for sovereignty and internationally agreed-upon rules and norms.
“We reaffirmed the vital role played by the foreign policy, defence, intelligence, economic, space and tech partnerships between our two countries. These mechanisms actuate our relationship and our unwavering commitment to the values that we prize.”
The joint statement said there was “great potential” for New Zealand to collaborate in US-led defence and economic efforts in the Asia-Pacific which both countries viewed as contributing to “peace, security, and prosperity”.
The arrangements listed were a defence arrangement between the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, called the Quad, a US-led regional trade initiative called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, and the Aukus defence pact between Australia, United Kingdom, and United States.
New Zealand has expressed interest in joining the so-called second pillar of the Aukus pact, which involves the sharing of cutting-edge defence technology between countries. The primary purpose of the pact is to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarine technology, with the aim of contesting China’s rising military power in the region.
The statement said both countries “see powerful reasons” for New Zealand to be involved in these arrangements, “as and when all parties deem it appropriate”.
Both countries also praised each others’ work in the Pacific, and promised to be “guided by the centrality of the Pacific Islands Forum and the region’s priorities”. The New Zealand Government has been seeking to elevate the importance of the 18-country Pacific Island Forum as major powers, including the United States and China, vie for influence.
Previously, the Government and foreign policy analysts have talked of making the forum akin to Asean – a longstanding group of Southeast Asian countries that sets the course for their region’s security – which insists on outside countries respecting its “centrality”, the premise that no country supplants the grouping in the region.
The reference to “centrality” in the joint US-NZ statement appears to be one of the first times it has entered a formal diplomatic statement in connection to the Pacific Island Forum.