LegiStorm

Summary:

New Zealand is a close partner of the United States and welcomes a U.S. presence in the AsiaPacific region. New Zealand and the United States engage each other across a broad spectrum of policy areas, including countering Islamist extremism, South Pacific regional issues, intelligence cooperation, the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP), and Antarctica. Issues for Congress related to New Zealand, therefore, include oversight and appropriations related to international security cooperation, counterterrorism (CT) and countering violent extremism (CVE), intelligence cooperation among the so-called “Five Eyes” nations, which include New Zealand, and TPP. U.S.–New Zealand ties are bolstered by shared cultural traditions and values as well as on common interests. New Zealand is a stable and active democracy that supports liberalizing trade in the Asia-Pacific region. New Zealand also has a history of fighting alongside the United States in major conflicts including World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. New Zealand is a regular contributor to international peace and stability operations and has contributed troops to fight militant Islamists in Afghanistan, where New Zealand had a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamiyan Province, and more recently in Iraq where it is training Iraqi military personnel. As a small nation, New Zealand supports a rules based international order, collective approaches to promote stability and the peaceful resolution of disputes. During the mid-1980s, the United States suspended its alliance commitments to New Zealand due to differences over nuclear policy. New Zealand legislation made the country nuclear-free, which had the effect of barring visits from nuclear-powered or nuclear armed ships. The United States had, and still has, a policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons on U.S. Navy ships. These differences over nuclear policy significantly constrained the relationship for many years. The bilateral relationship between the United States and New Zealand was strengthened significantly through the signing of the Wellington Declaration in November 2010. The Wellington Declaration, and a subsequent Washington Declaration (2012), opened the way for increased military exchanges and joint participation in military exercises. With the Wellington Declaration, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key signaled that differences over nuclear policy had been set aside as the two described the bilateral relationship as the strongest and most productive it had been in 25 years. New Zealand is now a participant in the U.S.-hosted Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval exercise. RIMPAC, the world’s largest maritime military exercise, seeks to promote interoperability among participating militaries. New Zealand states that it favors an open and inclusive strategic and economic architecture in the Asia-Pacific region. As an early proponent of liberalized trade in the Asia-Pacific, Wellington sought to promote trans-Pacific multilateral trade through the P-4 (Pacific Four) trade agreement among New Zealand, Brunei, Chile, and Singapore, which came into force in 2006. Some view the P-4 as helping set the scene for the more ambitious, but still unratified, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, negotiated by 12 countries including the United States and New Zealand. New Zealand has shown a commitment to humanitarian assistance and conflict resolution both in the South Pacific and beyond. In the South Pacific region, it provides foreign assistance and disaster relief and is widely credited with promoting regional stability. Like the United States, New Zealand participates in the annual Pacific Partnership maritime operation, which seeks to improve humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. New Zealand’s commitment to promoting regional security is demonstrated by its past role in helping to resolve conflict in places such as Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and the Solomon Islands. New Zealand has also contributed to peace operations in places such as Bosnia, Sierra Leone, and Kosovo outside its region. More recently, New Zealand provided disaster relief to Fiji in the wake of the Cyclone Winston. The National Party, led by Prime Minister Key, and the Labour Party, led by Andrew Little, have traditionally been the two leading political parties in New Zealand. New Zealand has a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral parliamentary system. The next election is due by November 2017.