May 02, 2024
AUKUS not a military alliance says Peters
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affaira Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand is a long way from even being invited to join AUKUS.
He says the new alliance which will allow Australia to buy or build nuclear submarines with technology from the United Kingdom and the United States isn’t something New Zealand is directly involved in, but there are spin-offs – known as Pillar 2.
As he said in a major foreign policy speech to the Institute of International Affairs last night, New Zealand is still trying to understand what impact it will have on existing arrangements.
“The point I was trying to make last night is AUKUS is not a military alliance but a technology-sharing mechanism being developed by some of our closest traditional security partners. But we are in these sorts of arrangements with ASEAN. We’ve still in a defence arrangement with Australia yet we’ve got people who should know better carrying on as if we have no connections whatsoever,” Mr Peters says.
He says the coalition is continuing the discussion started by then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern when AUKUS was New Zealand’s involvement in Pillar 2 was first mooted in October 2021.