While U.S. President Barack Obama was making a high-profile visit to Asia, U.S. Secretary of State; Hillary Clinton was rebuilding long lost friendships in the South Pacific by extending hands of friendship and military cooperation to Australia and New Zealand.
New Zealand is very much within the U.S. “Sphere of Influence” and Clinton just confirmed it by signing the high-profile Wellington Declaration. This is the first step in the right direction towards annual security talks of the type that take place between Australia and the U.S. and which underpin the decades-old Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) alliance of which New Zealand was a member until the break-up in the mid-1980s.
In fact, Clinton was not only given a traditional New Zealand Maori’s welcome called Powhiri, the greatest gift that she could bring back to Washington was the release of the New Zealand Defense White Paper 2010 two days before her arrival. The White Paper envisaged greater Wellington’s presence in the South Pacific and strengthening the alliance with Washington and Canberra.
The ANZUS treaty—a military alliance which binds Australia and New Zealand and, separately Australia and the U.S. to cooperate on defense matters in the Pacific Ocean area—was previously a three-way defense pact. Following a dispute between New Zealand and the United States in 1984 over visiting rights for nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships of the U.S. Navy to New Zealand ports, the treaty lapsed between the United States and New Zealand, although it remains separately in force between Australia and New Zealand and between U.S and Australia.
Now the big question is what’s the reason for this paradigm shift? The answer lies in the drama played out in Suva, Fiji this year and during the course of the annual Pacific Islands Forum in Vanuatu (a small pacific island) this year. The revisionists’ attitude of Fiji’s Colonel Bainimarama and his eccentric positioning in the South Pacific with assured blessings of Beijing are not going well with Wellington and Canberra. The high point of Fiji’s courtship with Beijing was the presence of a high-level Chinese delegation on the eve of Fiji’s 40th Independence Day on October 10. There was no prize for guessing that the Fiji flag that was hoisted on the Independence Day was made in China. New Zealand and Australia would not like to have a “China Town” in Fiji with nuclear tipped submarines pointing towards it. They both need Washington to counter this new strategic threat.
Surprisingly, the Wellington Declaration has got a bi-partisan support with the New Zealand Labour Party (NZLP) clearly supporting it. There are three reasons for this. First, the NZLP is trying to move “center”. Second, it has political ties with Fiji’s Labour Party, which spearheads the movement against Fiji’s military dictator. Third, the NZLP get its patronage from Australia’s Labour Party and the latter has recently ejected Chinese speaking Kevin Rudd with more Anglophone oriented Jullia Gillard as Premier. Though Kevin Rudd is the Foreign Minister, he lost to Gillard on important policy matters, including on whether Australia needs to move right towards Washington or left towards Beijing.
Though in recent times Australia has been a stable ally, New Zealand has withered away from its traditional path.
Australia is a stable ally to Washington as it has to play a more pro-active role in the South Pacific and it needs the backing of Washington, including its veto in the UN Security Council as leverage against countries such as Fiji
Australia and Fiji were caught in a diplomatic entanglement in July this year when Fiji’s military dictator and present Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama expelled Australian High Commissioner Sarah Roberts on charges of interfering in the internal affairs of Fiji. Fiji’s increased aggressive posture coupled with a revisionist attitude has to do with the backing that it gets from Beijing. Fiji’s attraction towards Beijing is understandable as unlike Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. China doesn’t look at Fiji’s democratic credentials as a prerequisite to give it aid. Also, China can veto any resolution against Fiji brought by the United States and Great Britain. There is also a chance that China could use any of Fiji’s islands a military or naval base much to the irritation of the United States and nearby Australia. This has brought the alliance between the U.S. and Australia even closer.
New Zealand, on the other hand, has no such compulsion geo-politically. It was happy to play the role of younger brother to Australia in its affairs with Fiji. New Zealand was one of the strongest anti-nuclear weapons state and opposed to any nuclear tests being conducted by the U.S., France, and Britain in the South Pacific. The anti-nuclear posture increased when the New Zealand Labour Party came to power. This is was the reason why New Zealand severed defense ties with the U.S. in the mid 1980’s with an anti-nuclear legislation banning all nuclear armed ships near its water shores.
New Zealand had a compulsion to ban all nuclear submarine ships near its shores after the incident of the Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior took place in New Zealand's Auckland Harbour on July 10, 1985. It was an attack carried out by French General Directorate for External Security Agents aimed at sinking the flagship craft of Greenpeace, an environmental organization stationed in Auckland, port city of New Zealand. Members of Greenpeace were trying to stop a nuclear test by the French Government at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. New Zealand considered this an act of aggression and the NZLP banned all ships carrying nuclear weapons near its shore including American ones.
Another key reason why Wellington and Washington differed in their paths in the 1980’s was because of the two different world views that then leaders of the two nations held. The U.S. had a Republican President, Ronald Reagan and New Zealand was headed by left-center Labour Party’s Prime Minister David Lange. Now, times have changed with New Zealand having a right-center government headed by John Key and the U.S. having Obama’s center-left administration.
The Obama administration has understood the need to contain the influence of China in Asia Pacific. The administration’s paradigm shift occurred this year when China decided to behave in a more aggressive way in South China Sea and East Asia. The South Pacific is no exception as China is courting Fiji’s military dictator for the same reason; to gain a foothold in the region. As a result, the U.S. is strengthening old alliances in New Zealand and Australia by revisiting the ANZUS treaty. Could this be the start of a “Cold War” in the South Pacific between the U.S. and China? Only time will tell.
By. Balaji Chandramohan
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