New Zealand will forge stronger military ties with the US to counter the rising security threat posed by China in the Pacific after Wellington was accused of being “missing in action” in recent years.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, and President Joe Biden agreed to closer security co-operation in response to China’s increasingly aggressive stance in the Indo-Pacific. The move was seen by some analysts as “remarkable” for New Zealand, which has a history of resisting militarisation in the region.
The two countries highlighted “growing strategic competition” in the Pacific after China signed a security pact agreed with the Solomon Islands and embarked on a broader campaign to establish a region-wide agreement.
Those efforts have triggered a stronger reaction than in the past from New Zealand, which has been less bellicose than Australia in confronting China’s expansionist policies.
“The United States and New Zealand share a concern that the establishment of a persistent military presence in the Pacific by a state that does not share our values or security interests would fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region and pose national-security concerns to both our countries,” the US and New Zealand said in a statement.
New Zealand has been accused of cosying up to China, its biggest trading partner, accounting for NZ$20bn (US$13bn) of exports including dairy, meat and wood, and placing economic considerations above human rights concerns.
That also stoked tensions between Canberra and Wellington over foreign policy after New Zealand blocked Australian attempts to expand the remit of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which also includes the US, UK and Canada, to counter China.
However, Beijing’s security pact with the Solomon Islands had provided a catalyst for Ardern to take a stronger stance, said analysts.
Bryce Edwards, a political analyst at the Victoria University of Wellington, said the Solomon Islands pact has been “incredibly damaging” for the Ardern government, which is perceived to have “dropped the ball on the crucial issue of our relationship with the Pacific Islander countries at the very time that the superpower of China is seeking to develop a very strong partnership with these countries”.
Fergus Hanson, a director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that New Zealand had been “missing in action” after it tried to strike a balance between trade and the regional threat posed by China. “The Solomons deal has put those two things in direct conflict,” he said.
Anne-Marie Brady, an expert on China at the University of Canterbury, said that Beijing’s foray into the Pacific had broken down longstanding barriers between New Zealand and the US on security.
“It’s a remarkable feat to get a New Zealand Labour prime minister to stand alongside a US president for a joint statement on greater military co-operation between the two countries. Xi Jinping’s strategic overreach in the Pacific . . . has achieved what decades of official negotiations could not,” she said.
The US and Australia have moved to address Pacific Island nation’s concerns, including climate change, in the wake of a concerted effort by China to strengthen its own ties in the region.
Penny Wong visited Fiji last month in her first week as Australia’s foreign minister. Fiji has also joined the US-led Indo Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity agreement.
Ardern said that New Zealand was “happy” to join the IPEF as well, but added that the economic deal should be broader. “We do want it to be meaningful,” she said in Washington.
