/ Supplied
RIMPAC 2026 deployment
highlights New Zealand’s hypocrisy again: Multiple
conflicts with NZ’s stated commitment to nuclear
disarmament, the rules-based order, international law, and
human rights
While New Zealand politicians regularly
condemn militarisation of the Pacific, here they are once
more contributing to it as New Zealand armed forces join the
world’s largest maritime live-firing war games – Exercise
Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) – in and around Hawai’i from
24 June to 31 June. According to the military blurb, this is
so “New Zealand assets and personnel can test themselves
alongside some of the best in the world”, and be part of
“a sharing of cultures”.
RIMPAC 2026 comprises at
least 29 warships, 5 support vessels, 5 submarines, 140
aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel (including an
unknown number of “land forces” such as Special Forces);
and there are many good reasons why New Zealand should not
be part of this destructive biennial invasion of
Hawai’i.
RIMPAC is a series of full-scale combat
assaults on land and sea: sacred sites are destroyed through
live gunfire and mortar-fire, helicopter assault landings,
tracked and other military vehicles, and the pounding boots
of thousands of soldiers; coastal and reef areas are damaged
by high-speed amphibious assault vehicles; the marine
environment is ravaged by missiles, torpedoes and naval guns
with devastating impacts on sea creatures, including marine
mammals and bird life; and there is contamination by fuel
and other hazardous leaks, as well as unexploded ordnance
left behind on land and in the ocean.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
The influx of
large numbers of foreign military personnel also raises
serious concerns around the health and safety of women and
girls in particular, with the Hawai’i State Commission on
the Status of Women specifically referring to RIMPAC as a
significant violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking
risk in the past , and Hawaiian community groups publishing
a RIMPAC Community Safety Toolkit .
By joining RIMPAC
again, New Zealand is ignoring the voices of Kānaka Maoli
(Native Hawaiians) who have opposed it for many years, and
is perpetuating militarised colonisation while contributing
to toxic pollution and destruction of the environment,
harming marine and other life, increasing New Zealand’s
climate-destroying emissions and wasting non-renewable
resources…in the midst of a fossil fuel
crisis.
According to the NZDF, “The purpose of
RIMPAC is to engage in mutual, large-scale military
exercises to foster familiarity, trust, interoperability and
collective strength among Pacific nations. This means the
navies of friendly nations get used to working
together.”
This statement is problematic on a number
of levels, beginning with the fact that only three Pacific
island nations have armed forces (Fiji, PNG, and Tonga, plus
Vanuatu has a paramilitary force): of the 31 countries
involved in RIMPAC 2026, only two – Fiji and Tonga – will be
there so clearly trust, interoperability etc is
overwhelmingly not being fostered with Pacific island
nations.
Furthermore, Pacific leaders and communities
have repeatedly stated that the escalating climate emergency
is the single biggest security threat to the region, but New
Zealand continues to ignore that in favour of
ever-increasing combat capability: day to day military
activities, including “exercises” such as RIMPAC, are
exacerbating catastrophic climate change, with military
emissions estimated to be at least 5.5% of the global
total.
So who exactly are the “friendly nations”
New Zealand is fostering familiarity, trust,
interoperability and collective strength with, and how does
this relate to New Zealand’s stated commitment to nuclear
disarmament, rules-based order, international law, and human
rights?
As well as the many other issues around
RIMPAC, there’s also the matter of the 1987 NZ Nuclear Free
Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act with its prohibition
on New Zealanders aiding and abetting those possessing or
having control of nuclear weapons: RIMPAC 2026 again
includes the armed forces of five nuclear weapons states –
Britain, France, India, Israel and the US.
We have not
forgotten that three of those states – Britain, France and
the US – detonated more than 300 nuclear bombs in the region
causing immeasurable harm to the health and wellbeing of
Pacific peoples and extensive ongoing radioactive
contamination of the environment, and here they are still
destroying the Pacific with their harmful military
activities – with New Zealand’s support.
New Zealand
often states its commitment to the rules-based order,
international law, and human rights, and its current
Disarmament Strategy – “to achieve a safer and more secure
world, free from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction, where international humanitarian law is
respected and civilians in conflict zones are protected from
harm” – has ‘Defending International Humanitarian Law and
the Protection of Civilians’ as one of its three
priorities.
Yet the RIMPAC participants list again
includes Israel, not only a nuclear-armed state but also a
state whose behaviour is clearly totally inconsistent with
the rules-based order, international law, and respect for
human rights.
As RIMPAC 2026 gets underway, Israel is
in breach – among other things – of four Provisional
Measures Orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ),
the highest world court and arbiter of international law, in
relation to the Genocide Convention; two ICJ Advisory
Opinions in relation to its behaviour in Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem; and its
Prime Minister is subject to an International Criminal Court
arrest warrant for crimes against humanity and war
crimes.
There is an obligation on state parties to the
Genocide Convention, including New Zealand, to act to
prevent genocidal behaviour – yet Israel is one of the
“friendly nations” New Zealand armed forces are now
happily fostering familiarity, trust, interoperability and
collective strength with.
In addition, RIMPAC 2026
participants include Indonesia, engaged in a brutal military
occupation of West Papua since 1962; France, another
nuclear-armed state, which occupies and has military bases
in Mā’ohi Nui (French Occupied Polynesia) and Kanaky (New
Caledonia); and other states that are engaged in a range of
human rights violations.
When asked why New Zealand
was part of RIMPAC 2024, the then Defence Minister and
Attorney General Judith Collins said that the US is
responsible for the invitations (as though New Zealand has
no choice but to be there?), and that New Zealand is really
fortunate to be part of it.
New Zealand’s military
deployment to RIMPAC this year comprises HMNZS Matataua (49
personnel), HMNZS Aotearoa (approximately 101 personnel),
HMNZS Te Mana (approximately 178 personnel}, 3 national
support personnel and 20 staff officers, and they are
scheduled to arrive in Hawai’i from 21 to 23 June
2026.
If, like us, you are appalled by the startling
level of hypocrisy inherent in New Zealand’s ongoing
involvement in RIMPAC, please share your views with Defence
Minister Chris Penk, C.Penk@ministers.govt.nz
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, W.Peters@ministers.govt.nz
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, C.Luxon@ministers.govt.nz
and your local MP – all MPs contact details are available at
https://www3.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/
References
•
NZDF RIMPAC page, https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/navy/what-we-do/combat-ready/the-largest-maritime-exercise/
•
‘Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women launches
anti-trafficking campaign’, 10 July 2018, https://humanservices.hawaii.gov/hawaii-state-commission-on-the-status-of-women-launches-anti-trafficking-campaign
•
Community Safety Toolkit During RIMPAC, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1458ZP4B2ma7b1buU5Mp49Rd_l4YrgieQ/view
•
New Zealand Disarmament and Arms Control Strategy 2024-2026,
https://www.mfat.govt.nz/assets/Peace-Rights-and-Security/Disarmament/New-Zealand-Disarmament-and-Arms-Control-Strategy-2024-2026.pdf
•
RIMPAC 2026 participants, https://www.cpf.navy.mil/About-Us/Exercises-Missions/RIMPAC/Participants/
Some
of our comments on RIMPAC over the years
See, for
example • Reality of RIMPAC compilation (2014), https://www.facebook.com/notes/366680997862361
• RIMPAC 2018, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/1752211271492901
• RIMPAC 2020, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/3236039016443445
•
Time to #EndRIMPAC (2022), https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/5145936915453636
and 2022 RIMPAC reality video, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/607178594443373
• RIMPAC 2024, https://www.facebook.com/PeaceMovementAotearoa/posts/888443889979411
