Kurt Campbell said<\/a>\u00a0there had been “some discussions, about the way forward” and he expected those to continue.<\/p>\n“We want to take those steps carefully, we understand the sensitivity… the door is open for New Zealand when it’s comfortable, when it feels that the conditions are appropriate to engage in those efforts going forward.”<\/p>\n
That “sensitivity” was New Zealand’s nuclear free laws, which Defence Minister Andrew Little said would not be in conflict with the parts of AUKUS New Zealand could be involved in.<\/p>\n
Little said he made that to clear to Campbell, Joe Biden’s National Security Council co-ordinator for the Indo Pacific, during a recent meeting they had in Wellington.<\/p>\n
“I indicated that any participation we would have, would not compromise and could not compromise our legal obligations and our moral commitment to a nuclear-free Pacific.”<\/p>\n
New Zealand had “been offered the opportunity to talk about whether we could or wish to participate in that pillar-two aspect of it, I’ve indicated we would be willing to explore it and that’s as far as that has gone,” he said.<\/p>\n
That work relates to collaboration on artificial intelligence, cyber, undersea capabilities, super-fast hypersonic weaponry, electronic warfare and information-sharing.<\/p>\n
Little said it would involve the kind of technology “adjacent or allied to what is needed to protect defence personnel”: hardware, equipment, and “domain awareness” like surveillance and radio technology. “And it’s that sort of technology that we’ve been invited to have discussions about whether we wish to participate in that.”<\/p>\n
He was quite satisfied it was quite separate from the nuclear submarines aspect.<\/p>\n
“Of course the subs will be deployed but whether it’s subs or conventional ships or even land-based troops there needs to be technology supporting their deployment in whatever arena they’re in.<\/p>\n
“It would be providing protection and awareness for personnel, however deployed.”<\/p>\n
New Zealand already worked very closely with allies and partners who had nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels and submarines, he said.<\/p>\n
“So we work alongside them, we deploy our technology alongside their technology in whatever context we’re working alongside them in, so no – it doesn’t change anything that we’re currently doing.”<\/p>\n
Another concern was the potential to upset China – an important trading partner.<\/p>\n
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta was in Beijing last week for formal talks; speaking upon her return, she said AUKUS was raised briefly by China, during a broader discussion about the Pacific.<\/p>\n
“The point that I made on behalf of New Zealand is that we don’t want to see the militarisation of the Pacific, we’re not part of the AUKUS arrangements.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
source rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Zealanders are being assured talks underway for possible participation in AUKUS would not compromise Aotearoa’s nuclear free status. The deal – between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom – is widely seen as a direct response to China’s push for greater regional influence. The trio pitches the security pact as providing “undersea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3904,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions\/3904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}