Gerald Hensley’s opinion piece (“How will a self-absorbed New Zealand deal with a rising China” Press 3 June) is a look back to what Mr Hensley sees as the good old days when New Zealand was more closely tied to the US and Australia. At that time New Zealand was part of the ANZUS defence alliance until we were effectively expelled after adopting our anti-nuclear policy in the 1980s.
Our stance was in direct conflict with the US “neither confirm nor deny” policy regarding whether its warships or submarines were carrying nuclear weapons.
Through the break with ANZUS, New Zealand began to develop a more self-confident, independent foreign policy. We were able to speak about the threat of nuclear weapons from a principled position. As Defence Minister Andrew Little told the Shangri-la Dialogue summit held in Singapore last week:
“On this issue my country ‘walks the talk’. For 35 years we have had legislation absolutely prohibiting the acquisition, stationing and testing of nuclear weapons in New Zealand”
It’s important to remember that our anti-nuclear policy was developed “from the ground up” through mass protest action against US nuclear-armed and/or nuclear-powered warships entering our harbours. It was boats on the water and feet on the streets that pressured the Labour government at the time to turn our back on nuclear weapons.
However, the great moral promise of our anti-nuclear policy as the basis for a world-leading independent foreign policy has been gradually eroded, most seriously so over the past 18 months. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and US pressure on China have resulted in what Andrew Little describes as “…heightened tensions – and increased nuclear threats”.
The government’s response has seen New Zealand shifting back into a much closer orbit with the US. It’s a lazy reaction which seriously misreads the reasons these tensions have developed in the first place.
The government quite rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There were no excuses for this aggression but there were reasons why Russia took this step which have never been acknowledged by our politicians. Prior to the invasion Russia sought numerous times for a security assurance from NATO because Russia did not want to see US nuclear missiles stationed on its border with Ukraine which would occur if Ukraine were accepted as a NATO member. It was the same concern the US had in the 1960s when Russian missiles were to be stationed in Cuba close to US borders.
Russian President Putin met with US President Biden online to find a way through but the US remained obdurate and two months later Russia sought a military solution.
An independent New Zealand should have called for the US-dominated NATO to provide some of the assurances Russia was seeking. We didn’t. Instead we have provided military support – pouring petrol on the blaze rather than telling Russia and the US to put their matches away.
Even now New Zealand could and should be at the forefront calling for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks to end the killing and bloodshed. That’s what an independent, principled, moral foreign policy would look like.
Instead former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended a NATO meeting to join the condemnation of Russia and current Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has done the same. There is nothing in Andrew Little’s presentation to the Shangri-La Dialogue which gives hope of any independent thought here. New Zealand has put its stake in the ground with the US.
The other issue Andrew Little highlighted at the Shangri-La Dialogue was heightened political tensions in the Pacific, and although he didn’t mention China by name he talked about “intensification of military exercising and challenges to freedoms of navigation, destabilising actions in the South China and East China Seas and rhetoric and actions that might disrupt the peaceable status quo across the Taiwan Strait”.
But if anyone was in any doubt about where New Zealand stood in relation to China, at a sideline meeting in Singapore New Zealand signed a defence co-operation agreement with Japan with the reported aim “to bolster co-operation in the Pacific, as the Asian power (Japan) doubles its defence budget to deter threats from China and North Korea”.
It follows New Zealand’s foreign minister expressing deep concern about the military co-operation agreement reached between the Solomon Islands and China last year while shrugging off any concern at the much closer military agreement between Papua New Guinea and the US earlier this year.
There are plenty of reasons for us to be critical of China; the annexation of Tibet; the attacks on democracy protestors in Hong Kong and the incarceration, for political reasons, of more than one million Uyghurs in China’s north-western region of Xinjiang mean we must speak out critically.
However, we must also ask why is it that the US sends warships and aircraft to patrol China’s borders and has sought to surround China with US military bases and extensive military alliances with countries of the region along with stepping up its anti-China rhetoric in recent years. How would the US react if China sent warships for naval exercises off the coast of California?
For its part many in China remember its “century of humiliation” from the 1840s to the 1940s when it was attacked, invaded, bullied and abused by expanding imperial powers (Britain, Germany, Russia, France and Japan) which, in typical imperial fashion, were keen to divide it up amongst themselves.
What our government will not acknowledge is that at the heart of the “problems” with China and Russia is the official US policy of “full-spectrum dominance” whereby the US is determined to gain unchallenged military control of the world and sees Russia and China as threats to their grand plan. The US tries to portray the issue as democracies Vs autocracies but anyone who has been paying attention knows the US has a long, sordid history of destabilising and overthrowing democratically elected governments all around the world if they adopt policies the US doesn’t like.
A report out last week named the US as the “most murderous killing machine in history” while another study out last week has shown that
“Wars the US waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan following September 11, 2001 caused 4.5 million deaths and displaced 38 to 60 million people, with 7.6 million children starving today”
The US much prefers working with despots and dictators who are prepared to go along with its plans rather than respectfully deal with democratic governments whose people have chosen an independent path.
Many New Zealanders believe we “share the same values” as the US such as cherishing “freedom” and “democracy”. Andrew Little used similar words when he told the summit we need to “protect our free and democratic way of life now and in the future”.
These are critically important values but they are not values shared with the US. Like a Marvel-comic country the US is on a quest for global domination. The US values New Zealand only for what we can provide to help it achieve this goal.
Navigating the more dangerous situation of growing tensions between the US and China in our part of the world is difficult for a small country like New Zealand but tying ourselves to the US apron strings is an unprincipled – even cowardly – position to take.
New Zealand politicians frequently talk about our belief in a “rules-based international order”. It’s a way for a small country to survive around global superpowers. The problem is that the US dominates the setting of the rules in its favour while reserving the right to act unilaterally if its interests are challenged.
Underpinning our relationship with the US is our membership of the “five eyes” alliance involving the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand which was set up secretly at the end of World War II to spy on other countries. The US dominates the alliance and New Zealand is spying on our Pacific neighbours/friends for the US through our spy stations at Waihopai and Tangimoana.
Through this alliance we are assisting the US with its plans to be the single global superpower. It’s time we grew up a bit and left the alliance. It does not reflect our interests and will always be a handbrake on us developing an independent foreign policy.
A small country like New Zealand, with an independent, principled foreign policy, dealing respectfully with, but detached from, the global superpowers can have a significant influence for the global good well beyond our size.
The world has changed since the 90s which is where New Zealand and the West have frozen their world view. Fukuyama told us history had ended with a liberal utopia and that was accepted hook line and sinker.
Our first move is to wake up and stop sleep walking towards the cliff. In a multipolar world we are going to have to sail our own path amongst dangerous shoals. The requires that we get new maps, better navigators.
There are really only two realistic paths to breaking away from U.S. control.
One is mass civil unrest. Once the U.S. orders its N.E.D. funded N.G.O’s to launch a Color Revolution against the new neutral government, there would have to be a mass movement willing to take bullets while defending the Parliament.
The other, more likely option, is building new alliances. The new government would have to enlist the help of China and Russia in order to defend itself: intelligence support to crush the Fifth Column, and then assistance in building a large military with sufficient deterrence (probably nuclear).
“The new government would have to enlist the help of China and Russia in order to defend itself” Kristoff R.
Oh that’s rich, really rich. Abandon one super power alliance to join up with another super power alliance.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
you’re MAD – we’re smart enough to go it alone. Brave enough – hmmmm – not looking at the current crop. I mean the most evil looking hard man amongst them is David Seymour fer chrissake.
We should have stayed neutral but Jacinda and labour decided that we should support Ukraine.
We should have stayed on course.
How about we start simple by quit prosecuting journalists and others who expose government missndeeds and actually incourage whistle blowing. And pay public servants near private sector wages so they don’t sell themselves to private interests.
Let’s take a look.
The media would not have let National off the hook that easily if they made the decision to support Ukraine.Yes, labour failed us and the media failed us.
We should have stayed neutral, talked to both parties how to achieve peace and provided humanitarian help. That is how we can best achieve our ambitions.
The brave and proudly independent nation of Ruratania demanded the world respect its brave independence, but also would have liked to be asked its opinion, just like the grownup nations were.
Fully support this piece from John Minto.
NZ’s nuke free policy was a genuine bottom up movement. Street by street, posters in house windows, suburb by suburb, school by school, Council by Council is how it was achieved.
But as the 40th anniversary of Rogernomics approaches it is obvious that there has been much backsliding. US envoys roam the Pacific in numbers and approach Ministers at a greasy meetings trying to manufacture consent for US Imperialisms unrelenting dreams of world hegemony (even as they are clearly going down in objective terms)
Aotearoa NZ needs to…
–leave 5 Eyes
–close the spy facilities
–say no to to AUKUS and the other regional US front organisations
–help rejuvenate the Non Aligned Movement of Nations
–have more contact with BRICS and development mutually beneficial bilateral trade and cultural relations with all friendly nations
Great ideas there Tiger Mountain – who needs traditional allies anyway eh let’s just bury our heads in the sand and believe that China are in fact not looking to aggressively expand into the Pacific with no regard for human rights or international law.
“–have more contact with BRICS” Tiger Mountain
BRICS are the new Axis Powers
Again, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Ok, take BRICS out, would you agree with the rest of my list?
US Imperialism remains the greatest danger to world peace, the sites of their 800 odd publicly discoverable offshore military bases and spy facilities demonstrate that.
The working class internationalist position should be “neither Washington, Moscow or Beijing”. I don’t see BRICS as a panacea, but NZ should definitely drop the cringing links to the Anglosphere.
You wouldn’t trade with B.R.I.C.S? Once you abandon the Americans, they will try to crush you with sanctions. Where are your imports coming from then? In case you forgot, your country has barely any mining or factories!
The idea that Brazil and South Africa are “the new Axis” is a ridiculous fantasy that only sycophants of Hillary Clinton would ever believe.
If we are to have an independent foreign policy, we’d need a viable military.
” If we are to have an independent foreign policy, we’d need a viable military. ”
Well I remember 1985-1990 and we did not have a viable military back then but we stood firm against the threats and the abandonment of our supposed Allies Australia , UK and the Yanks when WE as a country enacting our own sovereign law said NO to nuclear weapons supported I might add by Labour’s re-election on August 15th 1987.
But you are right about viability and we should be investing in our Navy and providing opportunities for our younger generation to enlist like we used to and as an Island nation that will have to respond to the climate challenges ahead and remember we are a seafarers nation and our remote position in the pacific.
John you are correct with this statement
” The government quite rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There were no excuses for this aggression but there were reasons why Russia took this step which have never been acknowledged by our politicians.
And this not being acknowledged from the start that an independent foreign policy would have allowed ourselves to analyse the NATO’s and the Americans move to think they could contain Russia by being directly provocative in accepting Ukraine to be part of the NATO alliance and place nuclear weapons on Russia’s border exactly as Kutscher did in 1962 in Cuba which almost precipitated a nuclear exchange and denied Cuba participation in the international community for decades.
Similarities could be made with NZ post 1985 -1989 except we were capitalist and reforming capitalists which meant that the Americans could be let in the back door while punishing us publicly for saying NO to their warships and allowing the French to commit an act of war by executing a terrorist act that the British and Australian intelligence agencies deliberately with held from us that an attack was imminent.
That should have sent the message that your friends are only friendly when it suits their interests and not your own.
I remember Lange in 1993 saying this ( and I almost forgave him for rogernomics ) later…
” I am proud to have been in a government that never went to Washington to grovel ..never went to Washington to grovel and that our independent foreign policy still remains.
We cannot afford a viable army. And even if we could afford an army we cannot build an army that will allow us the defend ourselves.
The Helen Clark government got on the right track but this labour government and the media failed us.
Imagine if it was a National led government that led us into our current choice of supporting Ukraine. We should have stayed the course and stayed neutral, that is where our value lies.
Our virtue signalling contribution to Ukraine is a bit of a joke.
Of course we should have aligned with those who condemn Putin for waging war against Ukraine. But once we backed one side over the other we lost our neutrality and America knows this and so does China and the rest.
As for BRICs, there is no integrity in that lot.
Why??
What a relief it is to read this.
I find all war to be a crime, and there is no way to conduct war in a humanitarian way .It’s a failure of diplomacy….and imagination…and humanity
Having said that , can anyone point me to a path Russia could have taken , apart from rolling over and folding, once all diplomatic efforts had fallen on deaf ears, and with Ukrainian troops massing on the front lines of the Donbas, ready to actualise Zelensky’s pledge to take the rebel republics by force?
Any one out there who can elaborate the path Russia could have taken ?
I sometimes think regime change?
But they’re no good at that .Despite all the nonsense about how widespread Kremlin disinformation is, and how they managed to get Trump elected, they do not have the finely honed ability to regime change through propaganda, compared to the country who invented and mastered to a peak, PR, advertising,(courtesy of Freud and the development of psychology) and very skilful propaganda
Well the obvious answer is not invade Ukraine.
They could have called a real election. They could have stayed out of Ukraine. It was not like Starbucks and McDonalds corrupted them.
Putting brought this onto himself through a misguided god complex.
Watch some of their TV footage. Spend a bit of time on YouTube and listen to interviews of Russian citizens and compare their responses to what you read on these pages. Then you may understand what Kremlin stands for.
Oh I do, Thiart, I do .I’ve also read history books , watched docos, and closely observed what was happening in Ukraine since at least 2012.Thats why I hold the views I do.You must be aware there are serious historians, diplomats and politicians who have different views to the mainstream mantra.
As there are Russian citizens who are not happy with Putin, there are multiple more who are .Just as there are Ukrainians who aren’t happy with Zelensky.Youtube is pushing videos to you to match your “interest”.They do the same to me .Which is why I prefer books and long form essays by people who might actually know something.
I imagine that the – ground up, mass protest action of the 1980’s – was helped along greatly by an independent mainstream media or certainly a far more independent mass media than what we have today. If we want independent foreign policy or independent anything for that matter, then we need to acknowledge the gigantic hurdle in our way – mainstream media.
I appreciate this analysis.
There is such a need for clear-sighted maturity in NZ’s foreign policy. I watched with horror as this government instead chose childish sycophancy regarding the US – and increasing geo-politcal instability. All with for no gain for NZ interests. It was as if it was all a big sports tournament that NZ was cheer-leading.
No independence, no thought or analysis, and all the maturity of air-headed popcorn and pom-pom waving.
There is an eerie, frightening, fantasy quality to politics today. Photo ops and pageantry devoid of substance and the terrifying sense that the political class sees everything as a movie in which politicians are stars and the public, merely real or potential fans. As if nothing they do has real-world consequences.
“Friends to all enemy to none” should be our foreign policy mission statement.
The Rand corporation a US NGO military think-tank stipulates that the US needs to have a war with China by 2025 or there about because they claim that their only change in their opinion to halt China surpassing the US hegemony which imo they already have.
Our govt supported the US and its proxies in the M.E like Iraq, Syria. The NZ govt under the JK regime donated resources and money to a Civil defense group not recognized by the “ICDO” (International Civil Defence Organization) called the “White Helmets” even Netflix made a documentary about this so called Non govt funded grassroots CD org.
Independent reporters such as Vanessa Beeley, Aaron Mate, Max Blumenthal, have debunked this grassroots civil defense unit as a western propaganda org pretending to be independent and working to help the Syrian population devastated by what started out as a civil issue turning into a full blown proxy war as mentioned in the “Timber Sycamore” document implicating western and its M.E allies funding, logistical, military arming Jihadi groups affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1610/S00400/nz-training-support-for-white-helmets-in-syria.htm
Let’s be frank we fund terrorism by militarily aligning ourselves with US foreign policies. We aren’t independent we jump and ask how high when the americans command. We can’t have an independent policy and the US will pressure our country to play apart of there suicidal plan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TACfQT3Th3k&list=PLQA69rKKSxb2KSFD52nUx-PuO3u421jeQ
The undeniable truth of everything written here is mirrored by the, equally undeniable, fact that for so many it’s not what they understand to be the truth. And that fact is at the root of another debate taking place on TDB right now, that of the media’s responsibly to keep us reliably informed.
Whereas before the Internet the media may have been trusted to be a reliable source of information, we now know that, in collusion with Western interest, that information has always been carefully controlled and that the media has been the controller. And now, with a Radio New Zealand news editor accused of sub-editing for sourced news stories to peddle “pro-Russia propaganda” the CEO of Radio NZ says those stories are sacrosanct and must not be touched.
And it’s the media’s blind obeisance to the pro-western narrative that blinds so many to the truth. For New Zealand to have an independent foreign policy it must first have an independent media.
Changing the Reuters article but claiming it was still from them is pretty blatant dishonesty from the RNZ Kremlin apologist, not just a differing opinion.
Why lie if there are facts or an argument to make which support themselves?
@KCCO. — R.N.Z. are supposed to be their own wire agency. Why are they doing Reuters reprints, instead of their own copy? They wouldn’t dare reprint anything from an agency that didn’t toe the State Department line.
Editing copy is what sub-editors are employed to do and have always done
Exactly, and a lot of subbing is either automated and/or contracted out these days anyway, if the contextual and grammatical mistakes are anything to go by!
yep – reuters feeds are boring – they would definitely need some “swooshing up” if I was trying to sell advertising and a personal agenda – oh wait… hmmm
Excellent response, I absolutely agree. We are predominantly white westerners and apparently we only want white western news!
When it comes to information from the BBC which is taken by RNZ as fact on what Palestine and Israel are doing we know that the BBC has a policy of not criticising Israel and this simply out of fear of being called anti-semitic.
Some of our news should come from Al Jazeera now that would be a real change and frankly more honest.
Not all revolutionaries are cut from the same cloth. Kiwis are revolting for different reasons and more importantly for New Zealand’s Nuclear policy during different periods of economic stability. There is increasing and decreasing dangers depending on which period New Zealand wishes to cement an independent foreign policy going full nutrality.
Theres four main stages the first when New Zealand banned nukes. Then we have the fall of the Berlin Wall leading upto terrorism during the 90’s followed by the war period which ranges from 2001 till present. After the splintering of The Soviet Union there has just been mass defecation all over the world and it’s been a struggle cleaning it all up.
It’s not only important to take a look at why a nutrality pact is important but also when to pull the plug and the circumstances surrounding many events that will enfluence how a nutrality pact will go. Certain events will increase peoples ability to remain neutral and certain events will make it harder. This is also a good opportunity to ask yourself when would you have pulled away from great powers the 80’s, 90’s, during the war in Iraq or at present. For me it would have been during the 80’s when we were most strongest coming off the back of French Nuclear testing, the Spring Bok tour and the terrorist attack on the Rainbow Warrior. But would you wait or maybe you’d stay on the whole entire time.
Okay the first period is the 80’s. These are the original woke before the word woke got toxic. Tired of the cold war we just wanted things to turn back to normal and people were willing to sacrifice a bit of there freedom for a lot more security. But most people who was taught, were taught by two parent households how one should treat other people and lead there lives. It’s the people who rebelled against there parents who would begin to really question the rules, order and imperial elites. Some people like me snapped out of it when the banks, post office, railways and forestry got privatised. Then you have people like Green Peace and John Minto training the next generation of activists who have always been quirky individuals I put down to to many explosions. Trauma is a serious thing and despite that he’s still recognised by New Zealand’s security and intelligence agencies and his recruits are not as willing. Even NZDF personal would take decades untill the war in Afghanistan to finally realize that they’ve been fighting on the wrong side this whole time.
David Lange for all his naivety had a solid moral compass and always knew right from wrong. And I believe America going full Gommer Pile eventually leads to the leaking of state secretes and New Zealand would turn against America. It’s going to take NZDF and New Zealand’s intel community a lot longer to pull away and realize who they are. I mean it’s already tough for them having to beg our bigger security partners for weapons. Most of the national security leaks come from insiders with a conscious reading this stuff making it impossible for them to stay. In. The Empire. Far more important though are they people who can bring there skills and knowledge into a full Nutrality pact. Y’know we need new military doctrine and alliances for a nutrality pact to succeed in an environment that contains the most powerful and destructive military alliances in all of human history. We will need highly trained and well resourced soldiers and intelligence officers carrying out daring raids, exposing the truth otherwise a nutrality pact will be meaningless.
Now by the time the war period kicks in hard after 9/11 The Royal New Zealand Air Force Sky Hawks and 2 of the 4 Royal New Zealand frigates will have been completely replaced by Hellen Clarks wonderful theories of war. Basically she thought that she could privatise certain military functions and farm out certain government responsibilities to non profits it was an admiral goal untill everyone realised shit everyone else still has guns and they’re getting bigger and better. All of the military expansion would happen out of Helens sight and out of her mind while most nations particularly third world nations was doing whatever America wanted them to do while those opposed to wonderful Green Party Theories of non-violance and conflict resolution theory are so powerless no one even bothers to lock them up. But for people living in the third world the situation has gotten very tough which is a golden opportunity to bring the peace, security, democracy and prosperity.
The situation with client states of America isn’t just evil it’s incompotent I mean how did we get to the point where a large portion isn’t paying legally obligated taxes. Perhaps some treasury official studied whether or not cutting taxes was sustainable or perhaps the government provides so little services no one wants to pay up in the first place. The mistakes in the tax system was pointed out long ago when The Treaty of Waitangi first got negotiated. And now we can’t use policy or regulation to kind of solve the poverty question y’know what happened to all the resources, where’s all the jobs. What’s an impossible burger. We can’t even use the bureaucracy And deplomacy to solve poverty it’s landing in NZDFs lap handing out aid and supplies which is a terrible way of constructing a military.
Y’know selecting hardened individuals and then making them take rights away during COVID. The more we use our soilders for democratic restructuring the more they go fuck this I’m out. Y’know just because they act like robots it doesn’t mean they don’t have a heart and sole Y’know it doesn’t mean that all of them don’t spend ten minutes a day on Instagram looking at feel good stories and just crying softly to themselves enjoying there morning coffee. But again anyone with half a brain realizes that Green theories of peace and stability or Americas just around the corner democracy is a massive lie.
At present anyone good. Anyone who represents masculinity is shamed, insulted, guilt tripped into believing that feminisity is the true way of democracy. The culture of New Zealand is turning sour and there is very little that a good soilder, a fine soilder, a robot could do to stop that tied. And so a nutrality pact will become more and more popular. No one joins the military to stay in permanent reserve forces learning how to circumvent civilian protocol and ordered to shoot unarmed civilians as part of bringing the democracy.
Generally speaking military officers are better at doctrine like nutrality because they know how to fly planes and drive ships. Hellen Clark built in major flaws into New Zealand’s independent stance on the war on terror. This would ultimately lead to Tama Iti being falsely accused of terrorism. Now this is a game changer because not everyone knew what had happened but everyone except for the propoganda spewed by commercial media new something wasn’t right. Everyone was forced to watch as Tuhoe was accused of being traitors and put under house arrest. Every soilder ought to find it hard to swallow theorical theories of non violence and conflict resolution and must be given the opportunity many have been denied to create a proper military force.
After the release of The Defence Review in a month or so which is deferent from the recent National Security review released recently full nutrality must be the goal because it’s clear that empires are injuring New Zealand citizens. I’m sure attrition rates are linked to democratic scams because they either had these ideas in there heads or weren’t sure if the public would support them into coalescing into a serious force.
Instead of being suspicious of NZDF a Full Nutrality Pact has to end major military conflict for all practical uses as soon as possible and this means encouraging them to emulate the success of the All Blacks.
So there you have it. Four different periods in which to go fully nutral.
Yes, lets not upset China and spurn our historical allies. Then when China sends its commercial fishing fleet with armed ‘coast guard’ patrols into our EEZ, we will do nothing as they rape the oceans – all because US bad…
A lot of those medals with company names I have shares in.
booo. hisss. war profiteer. child murderer. but of course they don’t mean to kill any civilians in the collateral damage of bombing the shit out of anywhere they deem fit. just a gun. I never pulled the trigger your honour. I was just in the neighbourhood.
your dividends are spread all over the Ukraine at the moment – well done.
“I hear the sounds of soldiers marching, and their footsteps lead us closer to the war.
But what if when they get to there, war doesn’t live there anymore?
What if someone pushed the button and the missiles all just fizzled on the ground?
What if the generals barked the orders and the soldiers just all laughed and stood around?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVIE2eV-eY&ab_channel=TOTYITALY
” If we are to have an independent foreign policy, we’d need a viable military. ”
Well I remember 1985-1990 and we did not have a viable military back then but we stood firm against the threats and the abandonment of our supposed Allies Australia , UK and the Yanks when WE as a country enacting our own sovereign law said NO to nuclear weapons supported I might add by Labour’s re-election on August 15th 1987.
But you are right about viability and we should be investing in our Navy and providing opportunities for our younger generation to enlist like we used to and as an Island nation that will have to respond to the climate challenges ahead and remember we are a seafarers nation and our remote position in the pacific.
John you are correct with this statement
” The government quite rightly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There were no excuses for this aggression but there were reasons why Russia took this step which have never been acknowledged by our politicians.
And this not being acknowledged from the start that an independent foreign policy would have allowed ourselves to analyse the NATO’s and the Americans move to think they could contain Russia by being directly provocative in accepting Ukraine to be part of the NATO alliance and place nuclear weapons on Russia’s border exactly as Khrushchev did in 1962 in Cuba which almost precipitated a nuclear exchange and denied Cuba participation in the international community for decades.
Similarities could be made with NZ post 1985 -1989 except we were capitalist and reforming capitalists which meant that the Americans could be let in the back door while punishing us publicly for saying NO to their warships and allowing the French to commit an act of war by executing a terrorist act that the British and Australian intelligence agencies deliberately with held from us that an attack was imminent.
That should have sent the message that your friends are only friendly when it suits their interests and not your own.
I remember Lange in 1993 saying this ( and I almost forgave him for rogernomics ) later…
” I am proud to have been in a government that never went to Washington to grovel ..never went to Washington to grovel and that our independent foreign policy still remains.
I would dispute only this line:
“Prior to the invasion Russia sought numerous times for a security assurance from NATO because Russia did not want to see US nuclear missiles stationed on its border with Ukraine which would occur if Ukraine were accepted as a NATO member.”
The worthless traitor Gorbachev was given those security assurances by the lying yanks before the government of the USSR agreed to engage in suicide by neoliberalism.
Was there a treaty against NATO expansion to aggress towards the borders of the remaining free states of Eurasia? Admittedly, there wasn’t. Would any such treaty have been torn up by the genocidal Bush and Clinton some time between the mid 90s and early 00s, after the American ruling class had looted Russia but before Russia got a real Leader back, even if it had been signed? Of course it would have been, and the same lying dogs who shill for the illegal coup that overthrew the last democratically elected government of Ukraine back in 2014 would be making the same excuses for that too.
At this point in history of heightened tension between the super powers, New Zealand is going out of its way to offend people and win enemies.
The two biggest political economic and military powers on the planet are squaring off against each other. Neither side is backing down. War looks to be inevitable.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/china-and-us-square-off-as-beijing-escalates-over-taiwan/news-story/afee0ab9e6290e1c7e2648befe5892d4
In the middle of this tense situation for the leaders of a small country that want to protect their people from the coming super power conflict, it would be best to stay out of it. The worst thing a small country would want to do if it wanted to protect its people is to needlessly offend one of the protagonists.
Ten days ago in a meeting with the Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu. in Singapore, Andrew Little rejected Li Shangfu’s offer of military training \exercises with China.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132228006/new-zealand-declines-chinese-request-for-joint-military-exercises-urges-talks-with-united-states?
Fair enough, after all we wouldn’t want to offend the Americans by accepting Li Shangfu’s offer. Of course we should reject the Li Shangfu’s offer, of military training exercises, but we also shouldn’t rub his face in it. That would be stupid.
Immediately after rejecting the Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu’s offer of joint military training, Andrew Little went to another meeting, this time with the Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada and signed a military cooperation agreement with Japan.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/closer-defence-cooperation-between-new-zealand-and-japan#:~:text=Andrew%20Little%20and%20H.%20E.,Shangri%2DLa%20Dialogue%20in%20Singapore.
Doesn’t Andrew Little realise war is coming, Doesn’t Andrew Little realise his very public snub of the Chinese Defence Minister, to then go and sign a military pact with China’s oldest traditional enemy, will not deter China from going to war with the US? Shouldn’t Andrew Little consulted with the New Zealand people first before he dragged us into the middle of this conflict between the superpowers?
War or Peace?
War is the biggest decision a people and a government can make. The New Zealand people need to have had a say.
But its not too late.
In my opinion now would be a good time to discuss whether New Zealand should become a neutral country.
Te Pati Maori have made New Zealand neutrality an election issue.
Before he sits down for Coalition talks with the Maori Party, Andrew Little should seriously consider the Maori Party demand for “military neutrality”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132012971/no-gst-on-food-no-monarchy-tax-the-rich-te-pti-moris-demands-for-coalition
….Tamihere said Te Pāti Māori also wanted “military neutrality”, saying New Zealand could be a “friend to everyone and an enemy to no one” with a military force that focused only on defending New Zealand and acting as a peacekeeper.
I’m Sorry What?
\New Zealand turned down the opportunity for our armed forces to train with the Chinese army.
I know, Right.
02 June, 2013, Singapore. New Zealand’s Defence Minister Andrew Little, meets with the Chinese Minister of Defence Li Shangfu. Li proffers Little an invitation for our military forces to engage in war training with the Chinese military forces, Little ‘cordially’ declines.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132228006/new-zealand-declines-chinese-request-for-joint-military-exercises-urges-talks-with-united-states?
Little said during the “cordial” meeting Li had asked for China and New Zealand to conduct joint military exercises “to deepen the relationship”.
“We want to maintain a high-level dialogue, but for a range of reasons we’re not in a position to do training and exercises.
“Given current conditions, it’s just not the appropriate time and we should keep our relationship just at that high-level dialogue level.”
New Zealand’s Minister of Defence Andrew Little needs to show the same credulity, when the US again comes knocking on our door for us to engage in military exercises with them.
https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/media-centre/news/nzdf-joins-rimpac-exercise-in-waters-around-hawaii/#:~:text=02%20July%2C%202022&text=New%20Zealand%20is%20one%20of,operations%20in%20the%20maritime%20environment.
02 JULY, 2022 Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Aotearoa has sailed into Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor as a part of the New Zealand contingent participating in Exercise RIMPAC, or Rim of the Pacific…
At a time of heightened tension and increasing likelyhood of war between the superpowers; time to stop rimming with the US
Taking sides in the upcoming third Super power redivision of the world, Andrew Little is painting a large target on this country.
Andrew Little must politely decline the next invitation from the Americans to engage in military exercises and training, with the same “cordial” thanks but no thanks. he gave to the Chinese.
Now would be a good time for New Zealand to become a neutral country.
Before he sits down for Coalition talks with the Maori Party, Andrew Little needs to seriously consider the Maori Party bottom line coalition demand for “military neutrality”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/132012971/no-gst-on-food-no-monarchy-tax-the-rich-te-pti-moris-demands-for-coalition
Defense is one thing I could vote conservative for – that, the environment and resources. I mean the world is blown up 100 times since the 50’s but no-one wants to be walked over. Right?
there’s a big cavern between the the US -and the US Govt. Stockholm more like it, and we’re on the lounge floor with our hands tied behind our back. oops – great article. does this comment make me a “person of interest”?
I have never forgotten the Sandinistas visiting Aotearoa in the eighties. They said the American government is out biggesst enemy and the American people are our biggest ally.
Well we all know that American democracy is a sham anyway, buy their way into the job most of them.
Please submit this article to RNZ, remind them that as per their current policy sub editing is not to be allowed.
But John. The US promises to make this proxy war in the Ukraine which is for a regime change in Russia the last time they do this kind of thing because they have learned their lesson from Iraq with the WMDs mistake and what happened in Afghanistan. They promise!
The Dooms Day Clock is at 90 seconds. Someone should set it at 15 seconds to.