DON BRASH: WE MUST STOP SUB-CONTRACTING OUR FOREIGN POLICY TO WASHINGTON

For most of the years since 1945, New Zealand has regarded itself as a friend and ally of the United States.  America had saved us from invasion by Japan at the Battle of Midway, and many New Zealanders served alongside Americans in the Pacific and, to a lesser extent, in Europe.  They were the “good guys in white hats”.

We sent troops to fight alongside the Americans in Korea, in Vietnam, and in Afghanistan, and until the Fourth Labour Government pushed back against nuclear-armed ships entering our ports, we were a member in good standing of the ANZUS alliance.

For a time, we pretended we have an independent foreign policy.  Perhaps we were always fooling ourselves, but it is very clear now that whatever was true in the past we no longer have an independent foreign policy.  On the contrary, we are now firmly signed up to go along with whatever the US Administration in Washington decides are its priorities for the moment.

We refrained from criticizing the US when it decided to invade Venezuela and kidnap the President of that country and his wife.  We’ve said nothing about the American determination to topple the regime in Cuba by the simple process of denying the country access to oil.  We refused to say a single word of criticism when the US attacked Iran at the end of February – in clear violation of any concept of international law and in the middle of negotiations with that country which the host of those negotiations, Oman, claimed were making good progress.

Those three actions, all in clear breach of the international rules which the US used to claim to uphold, provoked not a murmur of criticism from our Government.   And why?  Probably because of our overriding determination to remain onside with the US Government, partly for fear of what that Government would do to us economically if we offended it and partly because, without any consultation with the New Zealand public, we are now absolutely committed to the US militarily.

Over the weekend, Christopher Luxon met with his Australian counterpart in Queensland.  The communique issue afterwards contained the following:

“Prime Ministers acknowledge the 75^th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty, the foundation of our Alliance and our defence and security partnership.  They reaffirmed that our Alliance was critical to safeguard our collective security and support a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific region.

Prime Ministers….  recognized the value of New Zealand’s first ever participation as part of Australia’s contingent for Exercise BALIKATAN.

Prime Ministers reaffirmed the AUKUS capability and technology sharing partnership strengthens regional security and stability.”

It was a rather extraordinary statement in several ways.  New Zealand’s close defence relationship with Australia long predates the ANZUS Treaty, signed in 1951, quite a few months after we both landed troops in Gallipoli in 1915.  And our connection to the ANZUS alliance has been at best tenuous since the mid-eighties.  There has been no announcement of any final decision to sign up to AUKUS.

But making the ANZUS Treaty the focus of the foreign policy section of the press statement attempts to lock us into an alliance with the United States, as of course did our participation in the BALIKATAN military exercise involving countries which the United States clearly hopes would fight alongside it in the event of war with China.

Why on earth would we want to go to war with our largest trading partner alongside a country with which we have never managed to negotiate a free trade deal, and which in recent times imposes egregious tariffs on our exports?

Ah yes, but China might attack us: look how they punished the four Parliamentarians who had the effrontery to visit Taiwan recently.  Yes, but we’ve known for many years that China is highly sensitive to any countries’ relationship with Taiwan, and regards any “official” visit to Taiwan very negatively. 

But the four MPs were not part of the Government!  True, but three of them were of course members of the parties which make up the Government and, although we make a distinction between the Executive branch and the Legislature, that is rather subtle for many foreigners.   (When Governor of the Reserve Bank, I myself was not allowed to visit Taiwan by our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs because they recognized that such a visit could have caused an international incident.)

And the punishment meted out?  The four MPs may not visit China for 12 months.  Wet bus tickets come to mind.   If China had decided to ban kiwifruit exports from New Zealand for 12 months we really would have had grounds to complain.

Nobody doubts that China intends to regain control of Taiwan, a territory originally taken from China after Japan attacked the country in 1894.  It has been quite open about that intention.

But for the life of me I can’t see how that threatens New Zealand, or why New Zealand should form a military alliance with the United States, an alliance specifically aimed at China.  Were China and the US to come to blows, whether over Taiwan or for some other reason, it would be a disaster for New Zealand and the whole world, but nothing we could bring to the fight would make the slightest difference to the outcome.

As US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is alleged to have said: “To be America’s enemy is dangerous, but to be its friend is fatal.”

Don Brash

7 June 2026