NZ Must Consider Cost Of Joining Pacific Defence Alliance

Jessica
Hopkins Journalist

A geopolitics expert says
before New Zealand asks to join a defence alliance with
Australia and Fiji, it must first consider if it can afford
to.

The government announced
on Thursday that it was exploring membership of the
Ocean of Peace Alliance, which was signed
in Fiji on Monday.

Associate Professor Anna
Powles, from Massey University’s Centre of Defence and
Security, said New Zealand needs to have the capability and
resources to defend alliance partners if it ever comes to
it.

“Australia is a much larger economy, larger
military, et cetera,” Powles said. “The key question here
for New Zealand will be how it’s going to contribute to the
alliance both materially and in other ways, and that costs
money.”

She said one benefit of joining the alliance
would be to ensure New Zealand remains integrated in Pacific
regional security, particularly if the alliance’s membership
increased.

Pacific nations with militaries like Papua
New Guinea and Tonga could join the alliance if its
signatories agreed.

“If New Zealand does join, it
would certainly help to shape a future direction of this
alliance into becoming a potentially expandable
Pacific-centred security alliance, rather than simply
another bilateral defence arrangement.

“It would also
give New Zealand a voice in deciding the shape of that
future alliance.”

On Thursday, Prime Minister
Christopher Luxon said he disagreed with the claim by
China’s embassy in Fiji that the countries were engaging in
“geopolitical rivalry”.

Powles said there would likely
be “diplomatic pushback” from China, and that it would see
the alliance as a “form of strategic entitlement”.

But
she said New Zealand’s membership would strengthen its
relationships with Australia and Fiji at a time of
heightened insecurity within the Pacific and around the
world.

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