New Zealand Seeks to Deepen NATO Alliance

Flags wave outside the Alliance headquarters ahead of a NATO Defence Ministers meeting, in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 21, 2021. Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

New Zealand is moving toward closer ties with NATO after the New Zealand (NZ) Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, announced she would be attending a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels.

NZ has a long-standing partnership of 25 years with NATO and has supported various NATO-led efforts, including in Afghanistan, between 2001-2021.

“NATO is a long-standing and like-minded partner for Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of this meeting in person, to express our ongoing condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine one year on, and as NATO and New Zealand work to renew our formal partnership this year,” Mahuta said.

“It is important that we continue to engage with our close partners to address shared security challenges, many of which are global in nature with wide-ranging implications, including in the Pacific.

FILE PHOTO: New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta speaks during a session of the UN Human Rights Council, which voted to hold an urgent debate about Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine at Kyiv's request, amid widespread international condemnation of Moscow's attack, in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 28, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via REUTERS

“The visit will also provide the opportunity to hold bilateral calls with a number of my counterparts from the NATO allies and our other close partners,” Mahuta said.

Australia and New Zealand Deepening Engagement with NATO

The trip comes just 13 days after NATO military officials visited Australia and New Zealand from March 20-24.

Leading the delegation of NATO’s Cooperative Security Division (CS), Director Lieutenant General Francesco Diella said that it was important for NATO to deepen its engagement in the region because the “link between European and Indo-Pacific security is clear.”

“Russia’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe, and other global challenges are on the rise. We have a responsibility to preserve the rules-based international order. This order protects democracy and freedom and allows for prosperity to flourish. Therefore, NATO Allies will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes, and we are grateful to our Partners for doing the same,” Diella said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (R) arrives for the NATO summit at the Ifema congress centre in Madrid, Spain, on June 29, 2022. Javier Soriano/AFP via Getty Images

“In an era of strategic competition, NATO must work even more closely with like-minded countries. We are determined to continue to deepen and strengthen our cooperation with our Indo-Pacific partners, for example, by having their Armed Forces take part in NATO exercises and activities, which improves our collective interoperability and ensures our forces can meet common challenges.”

The enhanced engagement follows former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attending a NATO Summit last year, and the visit in May 2022, of Australia’s and New Zealand’s Chiefs of Defence to the NATO Military Committee Chiefs of Defence meeting in Brussels. Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, also attended the 24th annual Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference in Australia in July 2022.

New Zealand NATO Deepening Alliance A Natural Fit

The move by the Hipkins government to deepen ties with NATO has been applauded by international relations experts, with the University of Otago politics Professor Robert Patman telling Radio New Zealand that it was a “logical fit.”

“We believe in a multilateral approach to security, and we have done for decades. NATO is the biggest multilateral security organisation in the world, largely consisting of democracies,” he said.

“The other thing here, of course, is that we have a huge stake in what is often described as the international rules-based system or rules-based order, and that’s under threat at the moment.”

Patman noted that it was important for New Zealand to have good security relations with its economic partners because the world was becoming smaller “with middle powers and small powers exercising more influence.”

“And that gives us an opportunity to shape the world in the direction we'd like to go. And that’s how I see the relationship with NATO,” he said.