Wellington, New Zealand—US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that New Zealand would be welcome to engage in the AUKUS alliance, a landmark pact aimed at counterbalancing China’s rise in the Pacific.
“The door’s very much open for New Zealand and other partners to engage as they see appropriate going forward,” Blinken said as he visited Wellington, a trip aimed at shoring-up Washington’s alliances in the contested Pacific region.
AUKUS is a pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States that includes ambitious plans to supply Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines.
New Zealand has been treading carefully around involvement, hoping to avoid angering its largest trading partner Beijing.
China vehemently opposes the pact, saying it ignores “the concerns of the international community” and plunges the region “further down the path of error and danger.”
But Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Wednesday he was “open to conversations” about limited participation.
New Zealand has ruled out any involvement in nuclear-related projects, so-called “pillar one” of the AUKUS deal.
Nuclear submarines are banned from entering New Zealand’s waters under a widely popular anti-nuclear policy adopted in the mid-1980s. AFP