age Credit: Pixabay

New Zealand’s Paci c Reset: Building Relations Amid Increased Regional

Competition
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters made recent visits to the Solomon Island and Vanuatu.

By Grant Wyeth
June 10, 2019

Following on from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s visit to the Solomon Islands early last week, New Zealand
Foreign Minister Winston Peters also paid a visit to the Melanesian country on a two-day trip. While in Honiara, Peters
signed a new Statement of Partnership with the Solomon Islands’ Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade Jeremiah
Manele. The agreement seeks to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries with a focus on facilitating
improvements to the Solomon Islands’ economic growth, inclusive development, internal peace and security, and
resilience to natural disasters.

Peters also announced that New Zealand will support the creation of the Solomon Islands Airport Corporation Limited.
This new venture will see the Solomon Islands government take ownership of all international and domestic airports in the
country, and take responsibility for the operation and management of these assets. Wellington had previously assisted in
the development of the airport at Munda, on the island of New Georgia, to enable the region to receive international
flights, with the hope of improving the attractiveness of the region for tourism, in order to try and ease the Solomon
Islands’ economic reliance on logging.

Peters’ trip also included a visit to Vanuatu, where he discussed improved access for to the Recognized Seasonal Employer
scheme with Vanuatu’s government, an assistance package for those Ni-Vanuatu who were forced to relocate due to the
eruption of the Ambae volcano, and a renewed aid package of $56.3 million over the next five years.

While Australia has its “Pacific Step-Up” policy, Peters’ trip to the Solomon Island and Vanuatu forms part of New
Zealand’s own “Pacific Reset.” Both policies are designed to make a noticeable re-engagement within the region in the face
of increased strategic competition from China. For New Zealand a foreign policy with a primary focus on the Pacific is a
recognition of its limitations as a (relatively) small state within the wider Indo-Pacific, but also as a state with the
capabilities to hold significant influence in its immediate region.

One of the primary drivers of New Zealand’s foreign policy is its shared regional identity as a Polynesian country. Around
15 percent of New Zealand’s population is Maori, and the government makes a significant effort to incorporate te reo
Maori (the Maori language) and Maori cultural practices in both its internal and external communications. The country
also has a significant number of people of other Pacific heritages. This forms a vital pillar of New Zealand’s regional
credibility as it provides a demonstration of the familial and cultural links the country has with its Pacific neighbors.

New Zealand also recognizes that it shares many contemporary security challenges with the Pacific, in particular the
potential destabilizing effects of climate change. New Zealand’s 2018 Strategic Defense Policy Statement made prominent
note of climate change’s impact on regional security, and how the effects of climate change have the ability to intersect
with a number of regional development and social issues to adversely impact the region. In recognition of this, the Defense
Department also carried out an assessment of its capabilities to respond throughout the Pacific to the array of potential
impacts of various climate change related challenges.

In his speech at the recent Shangri-La Dialogue, New Zealand’s minister of defense, Ron Mark, identified Wellington’s
strategic zone as being one that extends from the South Pole to the Equator, and indicated that it was a priority for the
New Zealand Defense Forces to be able to operate in the South Pacific at the same capacity as they can in New Zealand
territory, the Southern Ocean, and Antarctica.
This is an ambitious outlook for New Zealand, but one that is grounded in its principled ideals of regional engagement and
responsibility, as well as a hard-headed acknowledgement that regional security and increased prosperity are in its own
national interests. For a state such as New Zealand that lacks significant hard power, there is a reliance on its reputation in
order to project influence. Trust becomes its most important asset. In the South Pacific the means that Wellington needs to
internalize the concerns of its neighbors, and be able to respond with credibility and decency.

Peters’ trip to the Solomon Island and Vanuatu — as well as his February visits to Fiji, Tuvalu, and Kiribati — were part of
Wellington’s continual furnishing of trust in the face of increased regional competition. The renewed interest in the South
Pacific by the great powers is creating both significant opportunity as well as some instability. This was made apparent by
the Shangri-La Dialogue holding a discussion on “strategic interests and competition in the South Pacific,” the first time
such a session had been included on the agenda. This indicates that New Zealand’s foreign minister will be spending a lot
more time travelling the South Pacific, consolidating relationships and implementing the ideals of Wellington’s regional
reset.