Foreign Minister Winston Peters is trying to play down the risks of New Zealand getting swept up in the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The alliance is seen as a counter to growing Chinese influence, and there is a fear New Zealand being seen as too closely aligned could damage Māori exports to China.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday hosted a seminar on whether New Zealand should sign up for Pillar 2 of AUKUS, which is supposedly focused on access to cutting-edge defence technology including artificial intelligence and cyber warfare.
Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr told the seminar foreign Pillar 2 is fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit aimed to make it look like there’s more to AUKUS than subs.
Mr Peters says he inherited the AUKUS file from the previous Labour Government. and he’s still at the stage of finding out what the proposal means.
“All of a sudden out of left field this massive discussion is going on which is simply scaremongering and my challenge to them is ‘when was the last time you had a serious briefing?’ I thought Helen (Clark), you’ve not been briefed on these matters for 16 long years. You need to catch up before you rush to judgment and say what we’re not doing and we’re not making any arrangements without first going in with our eyes wide open and finding out what it means which is where Labour under Chris Hipkins and Andrew Little as defence minister started in 2023,” Mr Peters says.
- Waatea News