Following the refusal by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters to acknowledge the State of Palestine, many people have taken to social media bemoaning the absence of an “independent foreign policy”. I thought I would take the opportunity to outline why I think we need one and how it could look.
CHINA
The New Zealand relationship with China is delicate. China is one of our biggest trading partners, especially with regards to dairy products. It is also an increasingly large source of tourists with seasonal flights twice weekly into Christchurch by at least one airline each summer and more regular services into Auckland. In addition to this, Chinese is one of the fastest growing languages in New Zealand.
However, we need to be careful with China. It is a country whose Government is renown for brutal repression of human rights, supporting dictatorships overseas in return for access to resources such as oil and raw minerals. It actively denies even 36 years later that the Tiananmen Square massacre happens and Chinese Government bots actively challenge anyone who tries to refute their denials on social media.
The difference between China and the United States when it comes to foreign policy and their enforcement of that policy is that China does not have 800 military installations scattered around the world. Nor does it have a nearly U.S.$1 trillion defence budget, and an entire industrial sector built around filling contracts for military grade weapons systems and other hardware. What it does have is a vastly modernized Peoples Liberation Arm/Navy/Airforce that has had a quantum leap in both its firepower and its ability to project that. Since 1995, the budget has grown every year in nearly double digit percentage figures. It has seen stealth fighters, an aircraft carrier, nuclear weapon capable submarines and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (I.C.B.M.’s)as well as newer tanks introduced. China has also started militarizing the South China Sea by building islands in the shallow regions and installing airbases on them to enable the projection of its airpower.
UNITED STATES
Following World War 2, a dramatic shift in global power away from Britain was in progress. The country that had colonized Aotearoa in 1840 was no longer able to protect New Zealand.
Enter the United States.
The influence of the United States had begun to be noticed before the end of World War 2. In June 1942 prior to deploying to Guadalcanal, the 1st U.S. Marine Division had arrived in Wellington. The advance of the Japanese had just been checked at the Battle of Midway and was a welcome relief to New Zealand and Australia who were the only remaining bastions of resistance left in the South Pacific.
For decades until the true danger of nuclear weapons were revealed, New Zealand remained a positive friend of the United States. Along with Australia, we formed the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance. From the outset though, New Zealand was constantly ridiculed by both larger countries for our reticence when it came to defence spending. For example, when the United States offered us a choice of F-16 or F-18 (which Australia chose) or F-15 combat jets, we chose to purchase significantly older A-4K Skyhawks.
As fears grew about nuclear weapons and the impact any use of them would have on New Zealand, the anti-nuclear movement kicked into gear. The left-leaning Labour Party campaigned against it 1972, resulting in New Zealand frigates famously protesting off the coast from Mururoa Atoll in 1973. When the National Government of Robert Muldoon took office in 1975, American nuclear visits resumed – and so did the protests.
When France bombed the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, it was a key moment in the realization of an independent foreign policy. We left A.N.Z.U.S., and the relationship with Washington D.C. turned chilly. But it was a good moment. New Zealanders realized that we didn’t necessarily have to cuddle up to Uncle Sam. Since then, to varying degrees that has remained the case, though since 2008 successive American Governments have attracted generally more positive approaches from politicians both in Labour and National.
More recently though with the election of Donald Trump for a second time, it has started to chill. The uncertainty over trade, immigration, what he really wants in foreign policy and his support for Israels genocidal actions in Palestine, have started to turn many against the U.S.
WHERE TO FOR NEW ZEALAND
I have long been a proponent of a third way foreign policy for New Zealand. In promoting this I have long believed we should keep both the United States and China (and any other major power) at arms length. Our foreign policy needs to remain principled, whilst supporting international law, enabling fair trade with all nations and intervening in crises where any of the following are jeopardised:
- Our immediate security and/or that of Australia
- The security of the South Pacific nations – Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Micronesia, Nauru
We should only contribute to international operations that have the support of the United Nations – something that will need significant work given the current adversity of the Security Council members to working with each other.
New Zealand has potential friends waiting to be discovered across Latin America, central and southern Asia as well as Africa. To far too many people in New Zealand our “world” seems to only cover the countries of Europe, Asia and north America that we are familiar with. Whilst those initial approaches might be minor, spending more time meeting delegations from nations like Colombia and Peru, Kenya and Eritrea have the potential to open up relationships we did not know we needed.
I support us developing greater co-operation with other Pacific rim powers, such as Japan, Singapore, Canada, and Chile. The recent visit of a Japanese warship around the same time as Hiroshima marked the 80th anniversary of being destroyed by a nuclear bomb in W.W.2., unsettled some, but not me. Japan have been remarkably peaceful post war, and it is time to acknowledge that, whilst noting the Japanese Government has been less than honest about its wartime atrocities, whose pain and suffering is still felt in some countries, like China and Korea.
We should continue to push hard for no more nuclear weapons. We should encourage the expansion of the list of countries that have prohibited the development/sale/importation/transportation/storage of nuclear weapons and/or parts for them across their territory. Just because the big five permanent powers refuse to come to the party does not mean that the anti-nuclear party should end or is meaningless. Just like our stand against nuclear weapons in the 1980s and 1990s.
The “world” in terms of New Zealand foreign policy does not have to revolve entirely around America and China. Whilst they are major players, they are not the only players.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 