Door open for New Zealand to engage on AUKUS, says US

The door is open for New Zealand to participate in the AUKUS weapons development and procurement project between the United States, Britain, and Australia, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday. The multi-stage AUKUS project, launched in March, is expected to be completed in the late 2030s and early 2040s with the development and operation of a new submarine class, SSN-AUKUS, by the British and Australian governments. This project will also use “cutting edge” U.S. technologies. “The door’s very much open for New Zealand and other partners to engage as they see appropriate going forward,” Blinken told a news conference in Wellington. “We’ve long worked together on the most important national security issues. And so as we further develop AUKUS, as I said, the door is open to engagement.” Blinken is spending a little over a day in New Zealand as part of a three-nation tour of the Pacific. Chris Hipkins, the prime minister of New Zealand, and Nanaia Mahuta, the foreign minister, both met him. Later on Thursday, he will fly to Australia, where the biggest joint military exercise between the US and Australia will get underway. Although Mahuta underlined on Thursday that New Zealand was “not prepared to compromise or change our nuclear-free position” and that it continued to support a nuclear-free Pacific, New Zealand has stated that it is open to discussions on a second phase of AUKUS that focuses on military technologies. The international rules-based order, the increasingly contentious global environment, notably in the Pacific, and highlighted the importance of the rule of law were all topics covered in her warm and intimate chats with Blinken, she claimed. Although their alliance was put on hold in the 1980s when New Zealand forbade the visit of American warships with nuclear propulsion or weapons, New Zealand and the US both regard themselves as close strategic partners. Due to shared worries about China’s influence in the Pacific, particularly Beijing’s expanding defence and policing links with the Solomon Islands and its possible destabilising effect in the region, their relationship has gotten closer over the past few of years. According to Mahuta, New Zealand respects the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands but also supports regional agreements that call on the Pacific region’s nations to band together when making decisions that could have an influence on the region. (With agency inputs)