Overview of defence relationship

Australia is New Zealand’s closest and most important security partner. The two countries fought alongside each other in all major conflicts of the 20 th century. We continue to work closely with Australia in bilateral activities and multilateral peacekeeping, most recently in Bougainville, East Timor and Solomon Islands.

Our alliance with Australia, founded in the Anzac Pact and formalised in the ANZUS Treaty, remains central to New Zealand’s defence policy. While the ANZUS alliance had divided into two separate bilateral partnerships, between New Zealand and Australia, and Australia and the United States of America, defence cooperation between New Zealand and Australia has continued to strengthen.

The Closer Defence Relationship (CDR) process had its origins in the 1991 annual meeting of defence chiefs. In 2003, Defence Ministers issued a new joint statement on the CDR. They highlighted the “strategic partnership” between Australia and New Zealand, saying it rested on the following key principles:

• we are sovereign, independent states working together for mutual security
• our defence and security partnership is open, based on mutual respect, and for the long term
• we will work together to deliver capability in the most cost-effective way
• we will develop and exploit the skills of our people to enhance cooperation, and
• we will focus on, and commit resources to, practical collaborative activities to achieve mutually beneficial CDR outcomes.

The New Zealand Government’s Defence Policy Framework, released in June 2000, reiterated the importance attached to the defence relationship with Australia. It identified as one of its five key objectives “meeting alliance commitments to Australia by maintaining a close defence partnership in pursuit of common security interests”.

Australia ’s National Security/Defence Update, released in December 2005, notes that Australia and New Zealand share many strategic goals, “particularly maintaining the security and stability of the South West Pacific”. Highlighting “our recent work together in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands”, it advises that “ Australia will continue to work with New Zealand to increase our capacity to work together”.