Metahound

The defence dialogue with new regional states could profitably be deepened and expanded upon. In tandem with this it would be useful too if New Zealand could further its engagement with ASEAN in the defence arena. Although the idea seems to have been dropped for the time being, the concept of an ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM) Plus would be an apposite one. New Zealand could, perhaps, participate in some way in the ADMM Work Programme looking at conflict prevention and resolution. Exchanges of personnel from the various defence ministries could help to further those vital personal relationships and ties and provide useful input into policy and planning processes.

The issue of how New Zealand can help to moderate major regional power rivalries is the most difficult to address. This is partly because it is an issue that has been of comparatively minimal concern to New Zealand and, thus, about which little in the way of declared policy has actually been formulated. To a large extent New Zealand has been able to enjoy the luxury of strategic distance. Robert Ayson has observed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Zealand’s Foreign and Security Policy Challenges paper of 2000 showed a lack of concern about the balance of power in East Asia and noted that South Pacific and not East Asian “contingencies” determined the NZDF’s shape.11 More recently, Our Future With Asia states that the “relations between the largest players in the region are in reasonably good shape.”12 However, Ayson also argues that discussion about China, India, Japan and the US often “invokes considerations of a changing regional balance of power”13 and Our Future With Asia singles out the rise of China and India as being of some significance for New Zealand.14 It also states quite clearly that it’s “imperative that the strategic environment in Asia remains stable to support peace and prosperity.”