Military leaders champion being a ‘fast follower’ to Australia through a joint Anzac force, but one academic warns of potential downside.
New Zealand’s military risks losing crucial advantages if it becomes “a small Australia” as part of efforts to build a joint Anzac force, an academic has warned.
However, a senior defence official says the country is not blindly following its larger neighbour, and the risks of increasingly close association are outweighed by the benefits of mutual support in an increasingly dangerous world.
Since coming to power, the coalition Government has stressed the need to strengthen military relations with Australia, the country’s only formal ally – a point reiterated by Defence Minister Judith Collins at Victoria University of Wellington’s Centre for Strategic Studies conference on Tuesday.
Addressing the Wellington audience, Collins said New Zealand “has no stronger bond than that with our Australian neighbours. We may wage war on the sporting field … but in every other way that matters we are family.”
She and Australian defence minister Richard Marles had begun work on a more integrated Anzac force, as outlined in last year’s Defence Capability Plan, combining the country’s troops “in defence of our shared interests, common values and respective territories”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has previously spoken of his desire for the NZ Defence Force to become a “force multiplier” for Australia, an approach which has attracted some criticism from the likes of former leader Helen Clark.
Speaking after Collins, NZ Chief of Army Major-General Rose King said the Defence Force had begun to pivot towards greater interoperability, acting as “a fast follower” to Australia’s defence capabilities.
“Australia being our ally, we are hand in glove with them. I’ve never seen our relationship as strong as it is now.
‘For our allies, our greatest contribution is the fact we are not them – particularly if we are looking for spaces to negotiate in a contested context, if we could be seen as a different kind of interlocutor at times in different spaces.’
