New Zealand ready to help secure Strait of Hormuz - but how?
Wednesday, 25 March 2026
New Zealand has indicated it’s ready to help secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, though any efforts won’t come down to flexing its modest military muscle.
About a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped through the narrow passage that Iran has effectively blocked since the US and Israel launched co-ordinated strikes in late February.
The impasse has put pressure on supply chains, forcing many countries to consider how they can support the critical passageway as they watch oil prices skyrocket domestically.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon signed a joint statement on March 21 with the United Kingdom, France and Germany ‒ among others ‒ condemning the de facto closure of the straight by Iranian forces.
Read more:
Airlines fear being stranded in NZ as global jet fuel supply tightens
Reserve Bank should ‘avoid reacting too early’ to higher inflation, says governor
“We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.”
The Labour Party has accused the coalition of making a “clear promise” New Zealand will wade into the conflict by signing up to the joint statement.
“This promise is one that feeds expectation on the global stage in the context of the most serious of events; a war,” its foreign affairs spokesperson Vanushi Walters said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has been quick to dismiss this claim as outright scaremongering.
“What absolute crap. What absolute nonsense. New Zealand is not a party to this conflict and we have absolutely no intention of joining it.
“At the same time the whole world is affected by it and the New Zealand Government is doing absolutely everything we can to protect and safeguard our citizens.”
New Zealand deployed six Defence Force personnel to the Middle East in January 2024 as part of international efforts to destroy Houthi military targets attacking commercial and naval vessels in the Red Sea.
This team never entered Yemen but were based at operational headquarters, indirectly contributing to combat operations.
Geopolitical analyst Dr Geoffrey Miller, who has done a PhD on New Zealand’s relations with the Gulf, said the Government was not about to press go on another deployment.
“Given that it’s still an all-out war zone, it’s just not really on the table at the moment that you’re going to have an international coalition of warships go in there and free the strait by force because the drones are still flying, the missiles are still flying.”
Dr Miller said the joint statement was “largely aspirational” and deliberately vague to capture a wide range of steps, including diplomacy.
“New Zealand should be focusing its efforts more on diplomacy and dialogue than this military side of things but nevertheless, solidarity is important and 22 countries is a sizeable grouping.
“Freedom of navigation is important, whether New Zealand can contribute to that, I have my doubts at this present moment,” Miller said.
“In the future possibly when it comes to monitoring, surveillance and so forth but that would only be when a ceasefire is actually in place.”
New Zealand had a track record going back decades of maritime security deployments, given it considers ‘freedom of navigation’ is an integral part of national prosperity and trade security.
Peters made a point of raising this yesterday as he made his case for the joint statement amounting to nothing more than a continuation of New Zealand’s position on global matters.
“We stand alongside international partners in supporting and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to all commercial shipping.
“We are committed to working with partners to try and address one of the consequences of this conflict which has huge implications for us, our partners and the global economy but that is not the same as saying we’re definitely going to contribute.”
Peters said any future decision for New Zealand to support multilateral efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz would be considered by Cabinet.
University of Otago international relations professor Robert Patman said it would be a delicate decision.
“What we’d be trying to do is do enough to keep the Americans happy but not do enough to say we strongly back it.”
The New Zealand Government has been careful to avoid explicitly endorsing the attacks on Iran, saying instead that it understands the reasons behind them.