AUKUS, Gaza on agenda during Winston Peters-Antony Blinken talks in Washington

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and US Secretary of State have agreed there are powerful reasons Aotearoa should engage with international arrangements such as AUKUS.

Peters and Antony Blinken met in Washington overnight.

Peters said among issues discussed were Gaza and Ukraine, and the role of New Zealand and the United States in responding to both conflicts.

They also discussed the trade and economic relationship between the two countries.

A joint statement pledges that New Zealand and the US will work even more closely together.

It says that includes arrangements such as AUKUS, which aims to advance military technology among US allies and supply nuclear-powered submarines to Australia.

The leaders say there are strong reasons for New Zealand to engage practically with AUKUS.

The Quad (the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity are also mentioned in the statement as key protections for peace and security in the Pacific.

The Quad is a security grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia.

Earlier, an official told Korean news agency the AUKUS partners were considering a range of additional partners including South Korea, Canada and New Zealand, in addition to Japan. The day previous, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said they proposed to “look at a project-by-project” approach.

Defence Minister Judith Collins told RNZ the government welcomed the announcement “about the pathway for others to engage” in Pillar Two.

“Inviting other like-minded nations to contribute to the non-nuclear military technology partnership under Pillar Two reinforces shared objectives of regional security, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” she said in a statement.

A formal decision was up to Cabinet, she added.

AUKUS membership a matter of timing

An international law expert says New Zealand joining the defence pact AUKUS is “just a question of when”.

University of Waikato law professor Al Gillespie told Morning Report there was a possibility other countries will join at the same time.

“Which will be likely Japan, South Korea, maybe Canada. The risk with that situation is that there will be a reaction from opposing forces such as China and Russia.”

There was a revolution in technology occurring within the military sector at present and it would benefit New Zealand to keep abreast in fields such as AI and cyber warfare if it wanted to have “a credible military”.

Gillespie said if New Zealand does join AUKUS, it might need to spend much more on defence.

He said every week there were events occurring such as the situation in Europe or allegations of Chinese spying in the New Zealand Parliament that was pushing the country into the new alliance.

Before his trip to Washington, Peters had been in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly where he delivered a speech to the Security Council, then met with both the UN president and secretary-general.

In those meetings New Zealand was asked to be part of the reform team that will look at the international body and its veto powers, which blocks decisions when any one country exercises its veto.

In his address to the General Assembly he accused the UN Security Council of failing to act decisively in response to the conflict in Gaza.

Peters also said the Security Council had failed in its responsibility to maintain international peace and security.