Govt might produce an Aukus ‘white paper’ – if NZ gets invitation
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says the Government may produce a “white paper” about participating in the Aukus agreement, if New Zealand is invited.
Peters appeared before Parliament’s foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee yesterday for a two-hour hearing as part of “scrutiny week”, when he was probed by senior Labour MPs on New Zealand’s relationship with China and interest in the Aukus pact.
Peters said the Aukus matter had “gone off track quite hugely”, reiterating that New Zealand remained in “exploratory talks” with Aukus countries about the pact, and had not been invited, as was the case during the Labour Government before the 2023 election.
The Aukus agreement between Australia, New Zealand’s only defence ally, and the United States and United Kingdom, is primarily aimed at providing Australia with nuclear-powered submarines in the coming decades. New Zealand has a longstanding nuclear ban.
However, the New Zealand Government has expressed interest in possibly participating in a so-called “second pillar”, which will involve the sharing of new defence technology between the countries.
Though Aukus countries have expressed interest in working with other countries, Japan is so far the only country to begin working with the three on a specific technology project.
Labour Party foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker asked Peters whether he would produce a “white paper”, or a report for the public, on the “momentous decision” that could be participating in Aukus.
“Nothing will happen with Aukus until we’re asked, and we haven’t been asked yet,” Peters said.
“And round about then, I think you’re right to be considering, contemplating the variety of a white paper, because when we’re asked, we could then make up our mind whether we want to say yes or no.”
Senior Labour MP Phil Twyford, who has opposed any participation in the Aukus arrangement, asked Peters if he accepted China would become the pre-eminent power in East Asia and the Western Pacific, and whether efforts to align New Zealand with the United States were therefore in New Zealand’s medium to long-term interest.
Peters said as an observer of China he has “admired their enormous dramatic change to a modern economy, so to speak”.
But, given climate change and population challenges, it was not easy to predict where the country would be in decades to come, he said.
Peters said New Zealand’s relationship with China had been “exceptional”.
“But it does mean that we have to nevertheless, because of our different systems and our belief, us in democracy and there’s is a dictatorship … we’ve got different evaluations of issues and principles and policies.”