In two separate overseas trips last week, New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister
Winston Peters moved to strengthen bilateral ties with the
administrations of US President Donald Trump and India’s
Narendra Modi.
The visits took place amid a sharp
lurch to the right by ruling elites around the world in
response to the escalating global economic crisis of
capitalism and the US-led drive to imperialist war. New
Zealand is embroiled in these developments.
While
Luxon feted and embraced the far-right Hindu supremacist
Modi, Peters kowtowed before Trump’s officials just as the
US immigration gestapo illegally rounded up and deported
hundreds of people to be imprisoned in El
Salvador.
New Zealand’s National Party-NZ First-ACT
Party coalition is a far-right government. Since assuming
office after the 2023 election, which it won due to mass
disaffection among workers with its Labour predecessor, it
has imposed a vicious austerity program with thousands of
job cuts, skyrocketing living costs and attacks on public
services, including health and
education.
Luxon and Peters pledged to
work closely with Trump following his election victory, in
particular to strengthen New Zealand’s military-strategic
alliance with the US. New Zealand armed forces currently
provide training for Ukrainian conscripts in Britain to
fight in the US-NATO proxy war against Russia, and NZ
Defence Force specialists are assisting with the imperialist
bombing of Yemen.
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The Luxon government
has refused to condemn Trump’s threat to take over and
ethnically cleanse Gaza or oppose Israel’s recent
resumption of its genocidal bombing campaign.
In his
visit to New York and Washington, Peters, who is deputy
prime minister and leader of the anti-immigrant NZ First
Party, sought to boost the government’s credentials as a
loyal Trump ally. After the first round of meetings with US
officials, Peters told reporters the discussions had centred
on “what they want of us” but he would not elaborate on
US “expectations.”
Peters’ most important
meeting was with his counterpart, Secretary of State Marco
Rubio. Peters said he was “seriously pleased with the
outcome.” When asked for specifics, Peters bluntly
replied, “it’s work in progress,” insisting he would
brief the Cabinet at home before speaking
publicly.
Peters gave no clue whether the talks were
enough to secure New Zealand an exemption from agricultural
tariffs Trump has promised to impose on imports from April
2. In the year ending in March, the US became New
Zealand’s second largest export market, behind China and
ahead of Australia.
In the year to last December total
exports to the US were worth $NZ16.04 billion. New Zealand
imported $9.6 billion from the US, making a trade surplus in
New Zealand’s favour, something the Trump administration
will likely view with hostility.
Asked about US
expectations of increased military spending, Peters told the
media, “You can’t surely expect the Pacific and the rest
of the world to be looked after by one country and everybody
else not pay anything at all. So at the very least, we knew
we had to increase our expenditure, and I’ll tell my
colleagues what that figure is.”
NZ Defence Minister
Judith Collins has already indicated the military budget is
looking to be doubled, to 2 percent of GDP, which will be
paid for by further gutting social programs. The opposition
Labour Party supports a major increase. Labour insisted,
when it was leading the government, that New Zealand had to
be ready for war against China.
Asked
about Israel’s renewed bombing of Gaza, tearing up the
temporary ceasefire, Peters refused to criticise Israel.
“We’ve got to find out how this happened. What started
it? What’s the background?” he said. Peters previously
indicated he is amenable to any US-dictated plan for seizing
and “reconstructing” Gaza.
Peters
released a statement on his meeting with Rubio declaring:
“We agreed that we should continue to work together for a
free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific.” This included
promoting the “prosperity and stability of the Pacific
Islands.”
A read out by the US State Department also
said the pair discussed “avenues for strengthening defence
co-operation through burden sharing, allowing our militaries
to work more closely together, and ensuring security and
economic strength in the Pacific region.” So-called
“burden sharing” refers to the Trump administration’s
policy of pushing allies to escalate their defence spending,
to shift the expense away from the US.
The references
to the Indo-Pacific are code for preparations for war with
China, which the White House regards as the main threat to
American imperialism’s global hegemony. Peters and Rubio
doubtless discussed the recent furore over Chinese naval
ships that carried out exercises in the Tasman Sea. The New
Zealand and Australian governments and media seized on the
exercises to promote further military upgrades.
Peters
earlier met with Trump’s USAID acting head, Peter Marocco,
and his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, declaring
they had a “very frank and open discussion” about how
important aid was for the Pacific. He insisted that the US
“gets our point of view in terms of how essential it
is.”
The Biden administration had pledged $US1
billion in aid to the Pacific to help counter China’s
influence. Disbursements have now been frozen for 90 days
pending a “review” of all aid spending under Trump’s
“America First” policies. Peters rejected suggestions
that the US would be “pulling back” from the Pacific.
“We don’t know that yet. Let’s find out in April, when
that full review is done on USAID,” he told
reporters.
Peters, a qualified lawyer, remained
totally silent on Trump’s sweeping attacks on democratic
rights and moves toward dictatorship. Rubio is a prime mover
behind the seizure and arrest by Homeland Security agents of
Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, whose
only “offense” is opposing the genocide in
Gaza.
Silence denotes consent and complicity. While
New Zealand authorities have not yet carried out similar
arrests, Peters recently made belligerent threats against
pro-Palestine groups in New Zealand, smearing them as
“illegal” and “racist.”
Peters’ week-long US
trip reveals how thoroughly the New Zealand ruling elite is
aligning itself with the forces of fascism and preparations
for war to redivide the world.
The same
agenda was behind Luxon’s trip to India, during which he
ingratiated himself with the authoritarian Modi. The visit
was ostensibly to open the door to a free trade deal between
the two countries, and for Luxon to address the Raisina
Dialogue, India’s annual conference covering security and
geopolitics.
In his Raisina speech, Luxon
reiterated his commitment to boost spending on the military.
He provocatively denounced China, saying its recent naval
exercises “sent a signal that alarmed many of my fellow
citizens.” He later told reporters that the exercises
showed that New Zealand and the Pacific could not be
considered a “benign environment.”
Such statements
are thoroughly hypocritical. New Zealand has taken part in
numerous military exercises aimed at provoking China,
including in the South China Sea and the Taiwan
Strait.
Luxon and Modi signed a defence cooperation
pact focussed on maritime security. India is part of the
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), a quasi-alliance
against China that also includes the US, Japan and
Australia.
China’s ambassador to New Zealand Wang
Xiaolong indirectly criticised Luxon’s statements, posting
on X: “It hardly serves your best interests when you try
to promote one significant relationship by damaging
another.”
The pronouncements by Peters and Luxon are
a further warning that, despite New Zealand’s extensive
economic relations with China, the ruling elite is committed
to supporting the US in its preparations for a catastrophic
world war involving nuclear-armed
powers.
