The European Union is now beginning to talk to New Zealand about a defence and security agreement to link the pair.
The Agreement would underpin what the EU’s Ambassador in Wellington, Lawrence Meredith, calls a “new reality”.
Simply, that means a third option for New Zealand apart from the United States and China.
It would come to a world where both President Trump and President Putin have upset the post-war international rules-based order.
Their wrecking role has been in evidence over the past few days with Trump’s attempts to impose tariffs on all imports and today being the fourth anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
But the move towards a defence and security agreement on Europe’s part has been immediately inspired by Ukraine.
“We’re taking steps towards launching that dialogue on security and defence, and there’s a strong interest from my fellow European Union Ambassadors,” Meredith told POLITIK.
“I’ve engaged both with the NZDF and the Ministry of Defence.
“So we’re moving forward on what shape that can take.
“It’s extremely relevant to Ukraine, and I think that experience of working so closely together over the last four years, both in the coalition of the willing and before that was even created, that’s what I think built the mutual experience of working together.”
The matter was raised when Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met EU President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels last June.
The official read-out for the meeting said security and defence were prominent in the discussions.
“The EU and New Zealand are deepening co-operation in the Indo-Pacific, where regional and European security are increasingly linked,” the read-out said.
“President von der Leyen proposed a closer security dialogue as a first step toward a Security & Defence Partnership, similar to existing agreements with Japan and Korea and under discussion with Australia.”
The Prime Minister’s brief for that meeting, released under the Official Information Act, acknowledged that New Zealand’s prime European defence partner is NATO.
But there was an interest in an agreement with the EU.
“While New Zealand’s European defence partnerships are with member states or NATO, officials are exploring whether there are opportunities to strengthen our broader security ties with the EU,” the brief said.
“New Zealand and the EU already work together in areas such as maritime security, transnational and organised crime and critical infrastructure, and we are keen to deepen this co-operation.
“We also see opportunities to increase defence and space industry co-operation.”
Things have moved on since then.
“My boss, Paola Pampeloni, the Acting Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region, met with Taha McPherson (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Deputy Chief Executive, Policy) last time she was in town in September to follow up on the President and the Prime Minister’s agreement, and we’re now taking steps towards launching that dialog on security and defence.”
The proposed Australia agreement does not set out formal defence ties but instead provides for co-operation on cyber security, counterterrorism, maritime security, and defence industry collaboration.
It addresses increased security threats, with both sides aiming to defend the rules-based international order, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, and it operates as a framework for dialogue rather than a formal military alliance with deployment obligations.
The proposal is a reminder that the EU realises it can no longer rely on the US as a security guarantor.
Meredith quoted von der Leyen saying that it was high time that Europe stood up for peace and freedom and paid its own way on defence, “and we’re strongly committed to doing that.”
What is hazily emerging from the fog of Ukraine is a growing mutual understanding among the old Anglo members of the British Commonwealth.
“I think Ukraine has underlined that you need to fight for peace and freedom,” said Meredith.
“And the Ukrainians are on the front line fighting for that, but Europe stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, as do New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
“And I think there are all those states for whom democracy, rule of law, and the protection of human rights are fundamental values, are standing with Ukraine because it’s the right thing to do.”
Conspicuously absent from that list are the United States and China.
Thus, Europe is becoming a third pole in what has recently been a bipolar world
and at the same time, as Trump trashes the international rules-based order, Europe is defending it.
“I think what is happening, and I think Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, put it really, there is a new reality,” said Meredith.
“And as our President, Ursula von der Leyen, has said, we need to adapt to the new reality, and that means Europe taking full responsibility for its own defence and strengthening its partnerships with all those who stand up for the international rules-based order, which is why the EU-New Zealand relationship is going from strength to strength of necessity.
“Because it’s fundamental both for New Zealand and the European Union that we defend the rules-based international order, which is so important for our citizens.”
Luxon has also proposed that the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU enter into a trade agreement with each other.
That too is progressing.
“I think Trade Commissioner Maros Sefkovic sent a very strong signal when he came here last October just for the EU-New Zealand Business Summit and went back to Brussels,” said Meredith.
“Three weeks later, he was in Australia to launch the dialogue on the CPTPP, and together these 39 countries, the 12 of the CPTPP and the 27 of the European Union, constitute both over 30% of global trade and global GDP.
“That’s an enormous share of world trade, and it’s a great statement that rules-based international free trade is fundamental to 39 countries.”
It is a wry reflection on the vagaries of war that the Ukraine conflict may prove to be a big plus for New Zealand if it leads to a new and more comprehensive relationship with the EU.
