New Zealand's partnership with the United States is "vitally important" and has seen "tremendous growth" over the last decade, a top US official says, as the superpower attempts to strengthen its position within the Indo-Pacific.
The US late last week released its Indo-Pacific Strategy, detailing its intent to modernise its relationships in the region, which it says is facing "urgent challenges" such as the growing influence of China, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
They're challenges New Zealand is familiar with. In regards to China, New Zealand's Ministry of Defence last December released a report warning the Asian nation is "the major driver of geopolitical change" and "China views an increased presence in the Pacific as part of its natural progression towards its global goals".
The US document says China "is combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological might as it pursues a sphere of influence in the Indo-Pacific and seeks to become the world’s most influential power".
It mentioned China's "economic coercion" of Australia, conflict with India on the Line of Actual Control, and "bullying" of neighbouring countries in the South China Sea. China has also previously attempted to gain influence among Pacific Island nations by providing them massive loans which they then struggle to repay.
As to how the US sees New Zealand's role in the Indo-Pacific, the strategy acknowledges Aotearoa's desire to "build resilience in the regional rules-based order" and describes New Zealand as a "leading regional partner".
Asked by Newshub on Thursday what role countries like New Zealand could have in countering China's influence within the Pacific, Daniel Kritenbrink, the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said there was value in working together.
"Our partnership with New Zealand has been vitally important for a very long time…and we've been delighted to see the dramatic growth over the last decade. I'm absolutely confident that will continue going forward," he said.
"I think for all countries who hold near and dear the values and the vision for the region that we want to live in… it will take all of us working together to secure and defend that vision. I'm confident if we work together that we can do so."
Ass Sec Kritenbrink said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was "delighted" to host New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta in Washington last year and also to speak to her last week while he was flying to Fiji.
"We were honored by her presence when she participated in the virtual meeting that Secretary Blinken held with 18 Pacific Island leaders," he said.
"We believe all countries of the Indo-Pacific who share our vision for a free and open region in which countries are able to freely pursue their interests unconstrained by coercion, all such partners are welcome to work with us and are vitally important to us as we together build and defend this rules-based regional order upon which we are all so dependent."
Sec Blinken visited the Pacific last week, including Australia and Fiji, for a number of meetings with foreign leaders. COVID-19 isolation restrictions reportedly prevented him from stopping in New Zealand along the way.
The trip came amid global uncertainty about tensions between Ukraine and Russia. An invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces remains a distinct possibility, according to US President Joe Biden. Reports that Russia has begun pulling back some of its 150,000 troops on the Ukrainian border have been dismissed by Western powers.
Ass Sec Kritenbrink said the fact the US Secretary of State went through with the Pacific trip "against a backdrop of heightened Russian aggression" is a "demonstration of our commitment to staying focused on the Indo-Pacific region".
"At each stop, and in fact in each meeting, the Secretary discussed with his counterparts our unwavering support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
"Autocrats must realise that aggression and coercion are not the way forward, and we will continue to work with our allies and partners to preserve and sustain the international order."
According to a readout provided by New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mahuta and Blinken acknowledged in their virtual meeting "the deep long-lasting friendship between" the two countries, which is "based on shared democratic values".
"New Zealand and the US are close strategic partners and cooperate internationally on many shared interests, which were discussed during the conversation. These included working more closely together in the Pacific to strengthen resilience, address climate change, and advance cooperation on our oceans and fisheries."
Greater focus on Indo-Pacific
Both the US and the United Kingdom have expressed their desire to step up their engagement in the Indo-Pacific over the last year.
Britain's Integrated Review released last March included a section on the UK's "Indo-Pacific tilt", where it laid out its intention to engage further with the region. It stated that by 2030, the world's "geopolitical and economic centre of gravity" will have moved eastwards towards the Indo-Pacific.
The AUKUS pact announced late in 2021 between Australia, the UK and the US was welcomed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as a sign of "increased engagement" by the US and UK in the region.
At the time, the National Party worried New Zealand was not part of discussions about AUKUS ahead of its announcement in September.
"Notwithstanding our anti-nuclear position which we haven’t changed, the question the Government needs to answer first and foremost is were we consulted or at the table to discuss with a group of countries that we've considered likeminded for quite some time," foreign affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee said.
Ardern said she was told of the arrangement by Australia's Scott Morrison the night before, but didn't publicly raise concern about this.
Academics say the concept of an 'Indo-Pacific', as opposed to an 'Asia-Pacific', is an attempt to include India, as well as eastern African nations, into one strategic view and to counter China's growing influence.
It's a phrase New Zealand has begun to use more frequently, including by Ardern in a speech in July last year. She described the Pacific as Aotearoa's "home", but noted the Pacific "is an increasingly contested region".
"And so, to understand that complexity, and respond to it, we also see the Indo-Pacific as central to our interests.
"We have embraced the concept of an Indo-Pacific as the wider home for New Zealand, locating Aotearoa in a larger ecosystem of nations and regions that includes East Asia, the Pacific, the Indian sub-continent and the Pacific Rim."
In his speech at APEC last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned "Asia-Pacific" nations to not fall into conflict.
"We should be forward-looking, move ahead, and reject practices of discrimination and exclusion of others. Attempts to draw ideological lines or form small circles on geopolitical circles on geopolitical grounds are bound to fail," he said, as per an interpreter.
"The Asia Pacific region cannot and should not relapse into the confrontation and division of the Cold War era."
