NZ now looks to join AUKUS!

Andrew Little says that New Zealand may look to join AUKUS – albeit in a non-nuclear capacity:

“We have been offered the opportunity to talk about whether we could or wish to participate in that pillar two [non-nuclear] aspect of it,” said Andrew Little, the New Zealand defence minister. “I’ve indicated we will be willing to explore it.”

In a welcome move, Gerry Brownlee has also walked back his idiotic comments on Australia joining AUKUS:

Last week, the New Zealand opposition foreign affairs spokesperson, Gerry Brownlee, raised his own concerns about whether Aukus might make it harder for Anzac forces to operate together. On Tuesday, he walked back his comments, saying he was “certainly not” trying to criticise the deal. “Australia will make decisions for Australia,” Brownlee said.

It’s good to see some sense being brought to the table in NZ. Our defence force is already woefully behind our allies in terms of equipment, capability and technology.

Helen Clark is maintaining her out of date criticism of all things military. Good thing she got the boot in 2008 – she has been irrelevant every since.

I’ve been a bit preoccupied with some other matters lately, so I haven’t posted as much as I would like. But I have to give credit where it is due – Air Marshal Short announced last week retention bonuses for all NZDF staff (who are staying in) as a partial rectification of pay and conditions falling so far behind. Army has managed to get some additional targeted payments as well to particular trades, ranks and location. Whilst it is simply reallocating the under-spend of the personnel budget (thanks to record-breaking attrition of over 17%), it is welcome.

The timing of the announcement just so happened to coincide with the new minister touring the camps and bases:

Posted

March 29, 2023

Military, New Zealand

Major Star

Tags:

Andrew Little, Military Policy, NZDF

Comments

7 responses to “NZ now looks to join AUKUS!”

Gravedodger

March 29, 2023

Is that similar to “A ‘Little” bit pregnant’, Major

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fighting temeraire

March 29, 2023

They had better increase the defence budget and start getting some decent equipment.

What about a Squadron of 2nd hand Apaches and some frigates.

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Whiskey&Pie

March 29, 2023

It is a sign of how demoralised defence staff must be that a public agreement to “explore” is taken as progress. Little probably figured that one off payments for retention are much cheaper than inflation level raises in base salary.

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MT_Tinman

March 29, 2023

A good time to ditch the Defense Force, put in a dedicated border-protection police force, a dedicated commercial protection (fishing limits, preservation areas etc) police force and teach all New Zealanders to sing God Defend New Zealand (the only defense NZ will be able to afford for decades to come) with feeling.

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Ueda Station

March 29, 2023

Pillar 2 is likely to involve Canada, the other FEVY’s partner not involved in Pillar 1 and Japan. There will be others but those two are seemingly the most likely. I would like to give this some commentary with respect to Japan if you will indulge me as it is context you won’t find in your usual NZ MSM media outlets.

Tokyo has emerged as significant player not that most Kiwi politicians and commentators have noticed. The Tokyo factor has always been looming and I suspect Defence and MFAT know this. Undersea and airborne capabilities, quantum technologies, AI, advanced cyber, advanced electronic warfare and hypersonics and the future technologies that commercially spin off from that means it is unavoidable.

Japan, the 2nd largest liberal democratic economy and still an advanced industrial powerhouse, will by 2028 be the 3rd largest defence spender as PM Fumio Kishida announced last December that they were to meet and exceed the 2% of GDP defence spend benchmark to match NATO, and get closer parity to Singapore, South Korea and Australia. It is likely some of the political dinosaurs over the last week are still analysing the current regional securitisation solely through a US lens and are not aware of how Tokyo over the last 15 years has been carefully developing a number of ‘mini-lateralist’ arrangements, including the Intelligence sharing agreement last year with New Zealand.

The Revision of the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation and Establishment of the Alliance Coordination Mechanism document back in 2015 deepened Defence and Security ties between the two countries and increased Japanese influence in the region and greatly equalized the US-Japan security partnership. Nevertheless the new guidelines intricately deepen the US-Japan alliance in a way that intertwines U.S. and Japanese security far beyond what previous existed. At the same time Japan sought new partners, and many have lined up.

The emergence of Japan as a key Defence and Security player in the region, balancing its significant commercial and technical weight and diplomatic footprint, is something that cannot be overlooked when calculating what side New Zealand really has to be on over the longer term. It seems the decision has been made and in my view the right one.

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adolf finkensen

March 29, 2023

The others should reject NZ until it earns its stripes.

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Uncoffined

March 29, 2023

Like so many things about NZ, there will be much talk with nothing happening.
I’ll believe it when I see it

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