Analysis - In the long list of 10 countries the US Secretary of War has praised for "stepping up" to "changing the playbook" on military strength in Indo-Pacific, New Zealand was nowhere to be seen.
"Freeloading" was the term Pete Hegseth instead applied to a country that had just put another couple of billion dollars from Budget 2026 towards the bipartisan goal set last year of doubling spending on defence to 2 percent of GDP by 2032.
Hegseth had used his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit at the weekend to dangle a carrot and a stick.
"We demand 3.5 percent from our allies and partners," he said as new Defence Minister Chris Penk looked on. "A favourable balance of power requires capable allies with real military strength, real industrial capacity, and real political resolve."
For those that matched the resolve of the US, "We are moving them to the front of the line, expedited arms sales, deep industrial base collaboration, expanded intelligence sharing, the list goes on that benefits many."
And for those that did not?
"Allies who refuse to step up and carry their own weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business."
Christopher Luxon pushed back on Tuesday's Morning Report saying that this was New Zealand's call, similar to an Anthony Albanese-Hegseth exchange last year - and a year on from that.
Australia has not been bumped from America's lists and lines, far from it.
So should NZ be worried?
It was not just the free-loader snipe. The country was also the only one of seven Indo-Pacific members of the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (a framework for "accelerating defence industrial collaboration" recently set up by America) to be left out of Hegseth's speech.
Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, Japan and the Philippines were all in the framework that Hegseth endorsed at Shangri-La last year and that also has NATO members. Those countries were called out as "model allies" and "true partners" at Shangri-La 2026.
Four not in the framework - Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and India - also won praise.
All these appear in line for Hegseth's carrot of "expedited arms sales, deep industrial base collaboration, expanded intelligence sharing" if they want it, and there are lots of signs they do.
Arms, industry and intel
In New Zealand there are signs of that too, and evidence of getting the carrot already.
If Washington wanted to make a "clear shift" against the two-percenter Kiwis it would have to take into account the following partial list of deals, exercises and engagements from just the last few years:
- Industrial base: In the National Defence Authorisation Act 2023, the US Congress unilaterally expanded its National Technology and Industrial Base or NTIB "to include New Zealand". The base was earlier expanded in 2017 to include Australia, Canada and the UK over worries "that allies and potential adversaries alike are achieving technological parity with - and in some sectors, superiority over - the US military". The NTIB legally ties industrial-base planning to the national security strategy of the world's only superpower.
- Intelligence sharing: A military-civilian satellite-watching hub funded mostly by the US and called Joint Commercial Operations or JCO has operated from Auckland since 2023.
- Arms sales: Wellington is buying over $2 billion of maritime helicopters from the US government.
- The NZDF is part of four parallel projects run by the US Army, Navy, Air and Space force to integrate battlefield data and build faster "kill chains" using drone-and-satellite targeting of the type used in Iran under Project Maven. This involves regular exercises to test high-tech weapons. NZ just took part in one run by Space Force focused on a nuclear weapon detonation in orbit.
- Satellites for the US National Reconnaissance Office spy agency, the NRO, have been launched from Mahia.
- In 2024 New Zealand joined the new Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIIR) to build up military supply lines. The Pentagon said it directly supported "President Trump's Peace through Strength agenda". The 16-nation group has projects to repair the P-8 spy planes - that New Zealand flies - in Australia and for potentially large-scale production of drones, munitions and "energetics" (new explosive materials). The P-8 and drones were called "marquee initiatives" by Hegseth in a March 2026 joint statement from PIPIR partners.
- In 2024 New Zealand accepted a US invite to join the elite 10-nation Operation Olympic Defence space security group. A radar station near Auckland is part of a new "federated" space system for the Five Eyes intelligence group the country has been part of for decades.
- New Zealand this year for the first time took part in the huge Balikatan exercise off the Philippines. Hegseth at Shangri-La noted the exercise that concluded this month featured "the most advanced US capabilities". It also got close to the South China Sea and upset Beijing.
- Attempts to get more cooperation with the second Trump administration on defence, space and sensitive technologies amid "support in Washington for stronger partnership".
None of that appears at risk.
'Not a my way or the highway'
Hegseth told the weekend's summit in Singapore that "America first does not mean America alone."
"This is not a my way or the highway approach. We are ready to work with all of you where you are, based on your own situation, your own geography, and your own cultural, political, and economic realities."
He was bluntest with the "closest friends", he added later.
"I don't have anything against New Zealand, I want partners to step up.
"We can't just say 'We have been friends for a long time so let's just work together'. It's 'We've been friends for a long time, so you better have the same capabilities that we do because if we don't our alliance is meaningless'."
