Our very special friend

After 10 years of under-the-radar diplomatic moves, NZ and the US are closer than in decades. Whatever happened to our independent foreign policy?

- PETE MCKENZIE

Late in December 2018, Winston Peters stepped up to a podium in front of a vast glass wall at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Before him was an audience of American diplomats, officials and students, whom he couldn't resist needling as he began his speech. "New Zealand is a small but well-functioning democracy. Indeed, looking increasingly well-functioning against some international comparisons," he noted, to knowing chuckles from the anti-Trump crowd.

Quickly, however, Peters settled into an address devoid of his usual jokes and comic asides. Instead, he began to chart an ambitious vision of New Zealand foreign policy grounded in the relationship between New Zealand and the US: two partners, he said, who shared a "special connection" stronger than almost any other.

That connection was "now coming into sharper relief in the Asia-Pacific", he noted. Sticking carefully to his script, Peters explained that "the region is becoming more contested and its security is ever more fragile.

It is New Zealand's view that the Asia-Pacific region has reached an inflexion point, one that requires the urgent attention of both Wellington and Washington." Throughout his speech, Peters studiously avoided pinpointing the country he felt was contributing most to the insecurity he warned of. But in a question session afterwards, a student made the subtext explicit: how could New Zealand compete against the vast resources of China?

It was a question Peters had already answered. "The significant focus of our visit to Washington is to share our concerns and enlist greater US support in the region closest to New Zealand," Peters had said in his speech. Enunciating every word, he had added, "We unashamedly ask for the United States to engage more and we think it is in your vital interests to do so.