Pacific Reset has climate change challenges in its sights – but China is a consideration, too

Defence Minister Ron Mark, when restating the government’s Pacific Reset at the multi-national Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore earlier this month, explained a shift in regional and operational imperatives.

He said:

“The Reset is both a vision, and a commitment to lift our ambition as part of the Pacific community. It is about changing our mind-set toaddress the increasingly complex issues in our region. It emphasises both what we are doing in the region, as well as how we operate.  Foremost, it is about genuine partnership and mutual respect.  In many ways the Pacific region is where NZ matters most and can have a more positive impact.  It is our neighbourhood, and where we most certainly act locally.

“Through our Strategic Defence Policy Statement, we raised the priority placed on our Defence Force’s ability to operate in the Pacific to the same level as New Zealand’s territory, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica.”

The Defence Capability Plan fleshed out this policy shift with details of new spending on ships, aircraft and surveillance by satellite and remotely-piloted vehicles.

Peters and partnership in the Pacific: an issue which gelled with Aust policy-makers

Foreign Minister Winston Peters  didn’t have much  luck when he  visited  Canberra  for  his  six-monthly  talks with his  Australian counterpart,  Julie Bishop.  Peters  was  no  sooner winging  his way homewards  when Bishop was  gone from  her ministry and finding a seat somewhere  in the distant back benches  of the Liberal Party, a victim of  the Turnbull massacre.

And  Peters’  message   on the Australian government’s  treatment of Kiwis being deported, although not yet found guilty of crimes in an Australian court of law,   also echoed  hollowly  in the  hallways  of  the Federal Parliament.

But there  was  one line from  NZ’s  Foreign  Minister  which did  resonate   among key policy-makers  in  Canberra.  It  was this: