Speeches and Articles
Welcome Madam Secretary
Stephen Jacobi
Dominion Post, 13 January 2010
Stephen Jacobi believes that Hillary Clinton’s visit helps advance New Zealand’s fundamental foreign policy interests.
Will the much anticipated visit of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week result in some new expression of the health of the NZ/US relationship?
In a relatively short time we have gone from a relationship that’s the best it’s been in years, to the best it’s been in a decade, to the best it’s been in 25 years. If it can be sustained, this positive trajectory can only reach the ultimate goal – a relationship that is the best it’s been – ever !
Certainly the visit has been well prepared to lead to that end. Secretary Clinton is making her first visit fairly early on in the mandate of the Obama Administration and staying a little longer than her recent predecessors. Even when New Zealand was a full member of ANZUS, visits by the Secretary were not all that common. The visit also comes at a time when the range of NZ/US co-operation has been expanded exponentially – with the signing in Washington this week of a new agreement to enhance research in the area of counter-terrorism being just the latest manifestation.
The world has changed significantly since the heady days of the early eighties. There are not only new threats to security and sustainability; there are a range of new global players. That alone calls for some new assessment of how the two countries, one still a global super-power with global interests, the other a niche player in world affairs but possessing some significant “soft power” credentials, can work together for mutual benefit.
In today’s radically more complex international environment, what happens outside our shores determines prosperity at home. New Zealand’s foreign policy must be driven, as ever, by our own interests and what we judge to be the appropriate role for a country of our size as a good neighbour and a responsible international citizen. We should be pleased to be counted as “a friend and ally” of the United States not, as some would have us believe, because we dance to an American tune, but because it makes sense in order to achieve what New Zealand wants to achieve in the international sphere.
Two areas will come under close scrutiny during the Secretary’s visit. The first is trade. The Secretary’s visit comes a few months before the start of negotiations for an expanded Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) including both countries. If successfully concluded TPP will establish a new benchmark for open trade in the Asia Pacific region which can address today’s economic challenges and provide a pathway to the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). TPP will also deliver the bilateral free trade agreement New Zealand has sought for some time. It is sometimes claimed that trade with the United States is a one way street and that any agreement will detract from New Zealand’s sovereignty. In fact the opposite is the case. An FTA is an insurance policy against discriminatory trade actions, the pressure for which arises from time to time and most notably in the recent economic crisis. It is precisely to constrain the exercise of power not to extend it that we seek an FTA relationship through TPP with the United States and other players.
The second area relates to military co-operation. The direction here is already clear. Restrictions on training and exercising which date from the 80s are already much less of a hurdle than they once were. Given the range of security challenges we face both internationally and more specifically on the ground in Afghanistan it is clearly in both countries’ interest that our armed forces can operate as seamlessly as possible together. Enhanced military co-operation does not mean a surrender to American power. It enhances New Zealand’s ability to make a contribution to peace and development where we New Zealanders judge this to be most effective.
Since the anxious days of World War II, described so well in Gerald Hensley’s recent work “Beyond the Battlefield”, New Zealand’s greatest fear has been of being marginalised in decisions affecting its future. Writing about the need for the future United Nations, the distinguished New Zealand diplomat, Sir Carl Berendsen, said “we must have a means of expressing our views on world problems and we must not be cribbed, cabined, coffined or confined to our own area”. In the period until the early eighties New Zealand’s influence was secured by participation in alliance relationships. In the period following the suspension of ANZUS we risked becoming “another Uruguay”. In a world where there are more Uruguay’s than ever, that has been avoided largely through active diplomacy and a willingness to do what it takes to ensure that New Zealand’s voice is heard when it is needed.
That is the context in which Secretary Clinton’s visit take place. She should be welcomed, not just because of the significant global power she represents, but because her country’s views and positions are important to a country like New Zealand and because, by working closely with the United States, we have an opportunity to advance our own fundamental interests in security, prosperity and sustainability.
