NZ and Aukus

The decision by the New Zealand government to seek participation in the AUKUS agreement signifies a marked turn in the nation’s defence policy. For decades, the country has luxuriated in the knowledge of splendid isolation from the troubles of the world. Yes, it has contributed to military engagements elsewhere, but it has not had to concern itself with any real regional threat to its security. The consequence is a country increasingly unable to defend its interest in the South Pacific.

My last activity as Defence Minister was the regular Australian-New Zealand defence ministers dialogue, held that year in Auckland. After witnessing training exercises by the country’s impressive Special Forces, the meeting moved to Auckland where we visited the naval headquarters. It was a sobering experience. Nestled on the city’s harbour, amidst the yachts of the nation’s millionaires, and the memories of Team New Zealand’s America’s Cup victories, were some of the country’s naval vessels. What was sobering was the insignificant size of the nation’s navy.  Surely, the two nations had to work together much more if we wished to secure our region of the globe.

My ability to address the issue ended a day later when Malcolm Turnbull announced his new ministry. As history now records, it was a return to interminable defence delays and questionable decisions. The Defence White Paper, which had been drafted, was not released for months, and the sorry saga of the French submarine decision commenced. But that is another story.

What commenced as a ban on nuclear powered vessels visiting the ‘land of the long white cloud’ compounded under successive New Zealand governments. There was little real difference in the defence policies of Labour’s Helen Clark and National leader John Key. With growing economic reliance on trade with China, governments in Wellington intensified their focus on accommodation with Beijing. This however began to change under Jacinta Ardern and Chris Hopkins, who sought to balance both the economic partnership and the growing political and security challenges of a an assertive China. The activities of the Chinese Communist Party in New Zealand’s backyard - Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and other South Pacific islands - rang alarm bells in parts of the ‘beehive’, New Zealand’s parliament.

Despite this recognition, reliance on Chinese trade remained the focus of political interest. There seemed little prospect of a realistic view of New Zealand’s grossly inadequate security arrangements. During last year’s election campaign, the opposition leader Christopher Luxon said he would ‘absolutely’ welcome investment into New Zealand via China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Since being elected prime minister, the National leader has changed tack, leading to the recent AUKUS announcement. The reason can be summed up in two words: Winston Peters. Unable to form a government in its own right, the National Party was forced into coalition with the ACT Party and Peters’ New Zealand First. 

The 78-year-old Peters was appointed Foreign Minister under the coalition arrangements, replacing the pro-China Gerry Brownlee, who had been my counterpart as defence minister. Peters had long shown his realism towards Beijing. He was the architect of the Pacific Reset strategy implemented under Ardern to counter Beijing's growing clout with Pacific Island nations. He recently told the country's diplomatic corps that ‘We will lift our strategic presence and engagement, particularly in the Pacific but also the wider Indo-Pacific region.’

Hence the meeting of the respective Australian and New Zealand ministers in Melbourne recently. The two countries have been working to make their defence forces ‘interoperable.’ An agreement signed between armies last year has the New Zealand army adopting Australia’s military ‘doctrine’. Peters has said this ‘interoperability’ would expand to other areas, including foreign policy and aid programmes, to make ‘our effort and money go further’.

In a significant change of rhetoric, Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins agreed in a statement that the AUKUS agreement had ‘made a positive contribution toward maintaining peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific’.

‘Increasingly the rules-based order which we rely on as democratic countries is under threat, and in this complicated strategic environment, one thing is crystal clear: Australia is our closest friend and partner, it’s our family and we are stronger when we work together,’ said New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins.

The announcement brought the usual condemnation from the CCP. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged New Zealand to avoid the ‘Cold War mentality’, claiming that Australia, the US and the UK were engaged in an ‘arms race’. ‘The three countries, for their own geopolitical interests, have totally disregarded the concerns of the international community and gone further down the wrong and dangerous path,’ Mr Wang said.

The China Daily observed that Wellington’s stand on AUKUS had changed since ‘a coalition of right-wing parties’ replaced Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government. The state-owned media outlet warned that joining AUKUS ‘would no doubt cast a shadow on bilateral ties’.

The paper editorialised that the Kiwis were ‘naive. . . . The geopolitical intention of AUKUS cannot be more obvious,’ warning that New Zealand is risking its relationship with China. ‘Whatever role New Zealand is being solicited to play in joining AUKUS, it would no doubt cast a shadow on bilateral ties and even offset what has been achieved in advancing bilateral cooperation.’

China’s angst bristled at the joint Australian-New Zealand condemnation of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the erosion of religious freedom in Tibet, the destruction of democracy in Hong Kong and threats to Taiwan, describing the statement as ‘irresponsible’.

‘China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this. Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other affairs are China’s internal affairs, involve China’s core interests, and do not allow any external force to interfere,’ a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Wellington said.

New Zealand’s belated recognition of the threat from China is welcome. Winston Peters’ clear-sightedness that his country should not become a vassal of China is a welcome change to the policies pursued in Wellington for far too long.

First published in the Spectator Australia.