Friends – with limits: The assessment of New Zealand’s relationship with the US by former Prime Minister Mike Moore.
Current NZ ambassador to the US, Moore addressed members of the New Zealand community in America on the current NZ/US relationship at an informal lunch in San Francisco on Friday.
“The two countries share values and interests but there have and are limitations on the friendship,” he said.
“It has taken political and diplomatic genius to manage the relationship (between the two countries) for so long”.
This was stated following a wry commentary on the views of the1970’s incoming Secretary of State Kissinger who lumped the relationship with New Zealand into the same camp as the US relationship with North Korea and Burma”.
Moore recalled feeling upset with this comparison. He noted how the nature of the two countries relationship had become increasingly more positive since then and provided examples of the thawing relationship:
RIMPAC: The world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise hosted by the US Navy was an example of the congenial nature of the relationship between the nations”, said Moore. New Zealand’s participation in 2012Â was overwhelmingly positive: He “didn’t just read New Zealand media”.
Some reports on the recent RIMPAC exercise suggested New Zealand had been snubbed by not being asked to berth alongside the other countries in Pearl Harbor. NZ attended RIMPAC in 2012 for the first time since 1985 after NS banned US ships from entering NZ harbours.
Moore: “The two navies “don’t have to go through the National Security Council for permission to engage in military exercises now.
The Trans Pacific Partnership had been a productive area for the US and New Zealand to work together. New Zealand was an original signatory and the US entered negotiations in 2008.
Moore said “trade is about where it should be”.
He posed the rhetorical question: “Is the NZ / US relationship sustainable?”
Answering the questions himself he said: “You must have tension in a relationship for it to grow. The upcoming [US] elections will bring tension, with a new Homeland Security , Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense”.
But he said the relationship has been growing increasingly more positive.
With regards to direct representation in Washington, Moore said that there had been 28 ministerial visits in three years. He related a saying in Washington that, “if you get what you ask for then you haven’t asked for enough”.
Moore finished by talking about the America’s Cup. He said everybody was working very hard to maximise the use of the resources allocated to New Zealand trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and “I’m not getting on the airplane back to NZ to ask for more money” (from the government).
Rugby World Cup 2011 events organizer Briony Ellis followed Moore and outlined the benefits of the America’s Cup in San Francisco to the New Zealand economy.
